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Results

We made extracellular recordings from 90 neurons (75 complex, 15 simple) in V2 and 33 neurons (21 complex, 12 simple) in V1 of 5 macaque monkeys. We characterized each cell with drifting sine wave gratings before testing with dynamic, translational Glass patterns. In order to increase the efficiency of our data collection and gather a large number of trials in a shorter period of time, we devised a different method of visual stimulation from that used in our earlier Glass pattern experiments in V1 (see Methods in Ch. 2). Briefly, we used a continuous sequence of 320 ms stimulus epochs, with no blank screen between presentations. The individual stimuli were repeated several times in random order in each extended block, which typically lasted 15-30 s, and the block was then repeated to attain the desired number of repeats. The dot density was the same on each video frame, so we avoided any response to a change in luminance as each stimulus began. From the resulting spike trains, we parsed out the spike times corresponding to the response for each of the stimulus, and determined the response rate from these data. This method allowed us to repeat each stimulus 100-200 times, instead of the 10-20 that was typical with our original stimulus. All of the Glass pattern stimuli discussed in this chapter were presented with white dots on a black background (i.e., maximum contrast).



Subsections
next up previous contents
Next: Orientation tuning to translational Up: Glass Patterns in V2 Previous: Introduction   Contents
Matthew A. Smith 2003-01-17