Influences of horizontal connections on visual responses in rabbit striate cortex

The goal of this study was to examine the role of horizontal connections in rabbit striate neurons. Anaesthetized rabbits were prepared in the usual fashion for single-cell recordings in area 17 of the visual cortex. We compared responses evoked by moving and stationary stimuli prior to, during and after recovery from lateral microinjection of either lidocaine (n = 61), gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA, n = 18) or bicuculline (n = 8) 2 mm from the recording site. This procedure allows evaluation of the contribution of neighbouring neurons in visual responses. Results showed that striate neurons are dependent on the adjacent cells' excitability. Modification of responses to stationary targets suggests that lateral interactions play a role in the generation of discharges to fixed stimuli. Lateral inactivation preferentially influenced non-directional over direction-selective units. This influence usually resulted in the non-directional neuron becoming directional by attenuation of the visually driven response in one direction. Simple and complex cells tended to be influenced differently by lateral inactivation. Simple cells became less responsive, whereas complex cells became more responsive. This dichotomy among cellular types suggests that simple cells receive mainly excitatory horizontal influences, while complex cells are contacted mostly by lateral inhibitory inputs.