Visual responses of neurones in cat superior colliculus in relation to fixation of targets

1. Visually elicited discharges were recorded from single cells in the intermediate and deep layers of the superior colliculus of alert, trained cats. With the behavioural protocols used, vigorous and consistent visual responses to the onset and offset of small, stationary targets were encountered in all layers of the colliculus. In addition, the responses of many cells depended on the behavioural context in which the response occurred. Specifically, thirty-nine cells were encountered in which discharge was contingent upon prolonged fixation of the visual stimulus. Thirty of these were located in the intermediate and deep layers and comprised 22% of the 134 isolated cells which were not related to saccadic eye movement. 2. Fixation-related cells showed sustained increases or decreases in firing during fixation of a visual target. Responses to presentation of a visual target at the same retinal location, without active fixation by the animal, were either absent, much weaker, or had extremely variable latencies. 3. Changes in activity were well established by the end of the fixation saccade. The neuronal response was sustained if fixation was sustained. Moreover, the neuronal response began to decrease before the onset of the saccade which broke fixation even though the receptive field location of the target had not yet changed. 4. In these neurones, the discharge rate was not a function of the position of the eye in the orbit. 5. Neurones in which the discharge rate was suppressed during fixation had larger receptive fields than cells in which the discharge rate was enhanced during fixation. There were fewer fixation-suppressed cells (n = 7, 5%) than fixation-activated cells (n = 23, 17%).