["Timers" and "scanners" among orientation detectors of the visual cortex in the cat]

Acute experiments on immobilized cats were carried out to check the suggestion that a special class of neurons ("timers") which do not change time properties of responses with variations in light bar orientation exists in the visual cortex. Previously neurons of the visual cortex with a dynamic shift of preferable orientation ("scanners") were revealed. Among 76 neurons 27 (36%) showed different properties: stability of latencies in the orientation range, shorter initial and peak latencies, duration and time of the discharge frequency increase, wider orientational tuning and worse relations between magnitudes of responses to preferred and nonpreferred stimuli. They were considered as representatives of the suggested "timers".