Receptive field properties of somatosensory neurons in the cat superior colliculus

In general, knowledge of the internal organization of receptive fields has played an important role in shaping current understanding of sensory physiology. Such knowledge is particularly important for understanding the function of the superior colliculus, since this structure is at once implicated in spatial localization and has relatively large receptive fields. While this issue has been addressed in the visual and auditory modalities represented in the superior colliculus, there are no previous studies of its somatosensory receptive field organization. Here, the properties of somatosensory receptive fields in the cat superior colliculus were studied quantitatively to determine whether they contain internal non-homogeneities that might aid in the determination of stimulus detail. Of special interest was the possibility that these comparatively large receptive fields would contain areas of differential excitability that could aid in spatial resolution, that within-field spatial summation and/or inhibition would be exhibited, and that the borders of the excitatory receptive field would be flanked by inhibitory regions. The data demonstrate that while inhibition beyond the receptive field borders is a rarity, these somatosensory receptive fields nearly always contain a well-defined area of maximal sensitivity within which the size of the stimulus is a critical feature in determining the magnitude of the response. These best areas are systematically distributed across receptive fields as a function of their location in the structure, and indicate that the resolution of stimulus location and size may be greater than expected on the basis of receptive field size alone.