Horizontal organization of orientation-sensitive cells in primate visual cortex

In the visual cortex of the monkey the horizontal organization of the preferred orientations of orientation-selective cells follows two opposing rules: (1) neighbors tend to have similar orientation preferences, and (2) many different orientations are observed in a local region. We have described a classification for orientation maps based on the types of topological singularities and the spacing of these singularities relative to the cytochrome oxidase blobs. Using the orientation drift rate as a measure we have compared simulated orientation maps to published records of horizontal electrode recordings.