The response variability of striate cortical neurons in the behaving monkey

In order to relate single cell performance to behavioral discrimination one needs measurements of the response variance of the units. We recorded from 183 single units of area V1 of monkeys performing an orientation discrimination task. The response variance was found to increase with increasing response strength. This relationship between response variance and response strength was well described by a power function with a power close to one. The response variance was on average 1.9 times the response strength. Despite important differences in preparation, the behaving monkey data are in good agreement with those previously obtained in paralysed and anesthetised animals.