Et. Rolls et Mj. Tovee, THE RESPONSES OF SINGLE NEURONS IN THE TEMPORAL VISUAL CORTICAL AREASOF THE MACAQUE WHEN MORE THAN ONE STIMULUS IS PRESENT IN THE RECEPTIVE-FIELD, Experimental Brain Research, 103(3), 1995, pp. 409-420
Neurons in the temporal visual cortical areas of primates have large r
eceptive fields, which can show considerable selectivity for what the
stimulus is irrespective of exactly where it is in the visual field, T
his is called translation invariance. However, such results have been
found when there is only one stimulus in the visual field. The questio
n arises of how the visual system operates in a cluttered environment.
To investigate this we measured the responses of neurons with face-se
lective responses in the cortex in the anterior part of the superior t
emporal sulcus of rhesus macaques performing a visual fixation task. W
e found that the response of neurons to an effective face centred 8.5
degrees from the fovea was decreased to 71% if an ineffective face sti
mulus for that cell was present at the fovea. In a similar way, introd
uction of a parafoveal ineffective face stimulus decreased the respons
es of these neurons to an effective face stimulus at the fovea to 75%.
In addition to these interactions, it was found that an effective sti
mulus object at the fovea produced a larger response than when it was
parafoveal, and that this weighting towards an object at the fovea was
also seen when more than one object was present in the visual field.
The implication of this weighting of the responses of neurons towards
objects at the fovea, even in an environment with more than one object
present, is that the output of the visual system provides information
to subsequent systems particularly about objects at the fovea, so tha
t learning about these objects (and less about other objects elsewhere
in the visual field) is facilitated.