Cortical RF width, cortical magnification factor and retinal eccentricity in strobe-reared cats

Abstract

Receptive field (RF) width was measured as a function of retinal eccentricity in areas 17 and 18 of normal and strobe-reared animals. In the normal animal RF width increases with eccentricity both in areas 17 and 18 but more steeply in area 18 than in area 17. The latter fact is in keeping with the smaller dimension of area 18 compared to area 17 (see Orban, 1984, for review). In normal animals there is an inverse relationship between receptive field (RF) width and cortical magnification (Hubel & Wiesel, 1974; Albus, 1975; Dow et al., 1981).