Integration of auditory information in the cat's visual cortex

Abstract

Microelectrode recordings were made from cells in the cat's visual cortex (areas 17 and 18). Forty-six neurons (38 per cent) responded to both acoustic and visual stimuli. Many of the bimodal cells responded best to pure tones and had narrow tuning curves. Some units were excited only by hisses. For many tone-sensitive cells the acoustic receptive field was coincident with the visual receptive field. The bimodal cells occurred in anatomically distinct clusters which were separated from the purely visual cells. Because of their precise specificity these cells probably play some role in the spatial localization of auditory and visual stimuli.