ON THE DIRECTIONAL SELECTIVITY OF CELLS IN THE VISUAL-CORTEX TO DRIFTING DOT PATTERNS

It is well established that cortical neurons frequently show different preferred drift directions for random dots and gratings. Dot stimuli often produce two preferred directions which are arranged symmetricall y on either side of the preferred directions for gratings. Based on th eir filter properties in three-dimensional (3-D) Fourier space and on the 3-D power spectra of drifting dot patterns, we estimated the optim al direction to drifting dots for ten neurons in the striate cortex of five adult cats. These estimates frequently gave two optimal directio ns, one on either side of the optimal direction to gratings. The angle between the two estimated peaks increases with drift speed. Predicted and actual angles were in reasonably good agreement. We conclude, the refore, that the directional selectivity of cortical neurons to drifti ng random dot patterns can be understood from linear filtering propert ies. For this reason, the directional tuning to drifting dot patterns seems to reflect the same mechanisms that mediate the responses to sin usoidal gratings and do not require a separate directional mechanism.