Model of local velocity in the primary visual cortical cells

A motion model for the early stages of motion processing in the visual cortex that focuses on velocity properties is presented. The model presents analytically the correlation between the velocity tuning curve and various cell parameters. The building block for this model is the rebound response, which makes possible the detection of spatial and temporal edges. The model suggests that adjacent subunits in the primary cortical cells display different strengths in their rebound responses, and thus a synergistic response is evoked in the preferred direction. The analysis deals separately with the two cutoff points of the velocity tuning curves. The model predicts a linear relation between the low cutoff point and the receptive-field size and an inverse correlation with the integration time. The high cutoff point is inversely correlated with the cell threshold.