Responses of single units in the monkey superior colliculus to stationary flashing stimuli

1. Responses of pan-directional cells in the superficial layers of the superior colliculus in paralysed anaesthetized rhesus monkeys to stationary flashing stimuli have been studied. 2. The receptive field centre response is always of the transient excitatory on-off type, while the surround response is transient inhibitory both at light-on and at light-off. The receptive field centres are circular or slightly elliptical. The average size of the receptive field centres is much larger than that of retinal ganglion cells. All units except those in the far temporal periphery receive binocular input. In each unit the on and off responses have the same latency times. With increasing stimulus area, the latency time at light-on and at light-off first decreases and then remains constant. In most units the number of spikes in the burst at light-on and at light-off first increases, reaches a maximum and then decreases with increasing stimulus area. This decrease demonstrates the presence of an inhibitory surround. 3. A model of spatial and temporal properties of centre and surround mechanisms is tested. Addition of excitatory centre input and inhibitory surround input, which have different spatial and temporal properties, determines the output of the neurone. The centre mechanism gets excitatory input from retinal ganglion cells and shows saturation. The inhibitory surround mechanism is made by an inhibitory interneurone. It could not be decided whether the excitatory input for this interneurone comes from retinal axon collaterals (forward inhibition) or from axon collaterals of "principal" cells in the superior colliculus (backward inhibition).