[Activity of neurons of the somatosensory and visual cortex in the rabbit during visual field testing and performance...

The activity of somatosensory and visual cortex neurons was compared in experiments on freely moving rabbits during testing of their receptive field and during natural "stimulation" of the receptive areas by environmental objects in food-acquisition behaviour. It was found that the neuronal activity during the receptive field testing may correspond completely, partly or not at all to that in food-acquisition behaviour, i.e. units displaying a certain relation to a receptive field area during the testing may keep it unaltered, alter it or lose it in food-acquisition behaviour. The different activity in the behaviour was observed even in neurons having identical receptive fields during testing. A conclusion is made that the picture of unit activity in the active goal-directed behaviour being modelled on the basis of receptive field testing may be rather vague. The results of experiments with the receptive field testing may help to develop the concept of processing of information about environment in the behaviour but with some limitations whose formulation demands special investigations.