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Published on: June 2, 2018
Binocular neurons in the nucleus lentiformis mesencephali in pigeons: responses to translational and rotational optic
1Department of Psychology, Division of Neuroscience, University of Alberta, Edmonton, T6G 2E9, Alberta, Canada. dwlie@ualberta.ca
Abstract:
The pretectal nucleus lentiformis mesencephali (LM) receives direct input from the contralateral retina and is dedicated to the analysis of optic flowfields resulting from self-motion. The activity of 126 LM neurons in response to optic flow stimuli was recorded. As with previous studies, it was found that most neurons (approximately 90%) exhibited direction-selectivity to large-field stimuli moving in the contralateral hemifield. However, some neurons (approximately 10%) responded to stimulation of both eyes and had receptive field structures conducive for detection of particular patterns of optic flow resulting from either self-translation or self-rotation. These binocular neurons were maximally responsive to panoramic optic flowfields simulating either translational or rotational optic flow.
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