Structural changes in receptive fields of visual cortical neurons of lightly anesthetized cats.

Abstract

1. Clear and significant changes in the dimensions, area, and shape of the receptive fields (RF), lasting 10–30 min after injection of sombrevin, were found in all cortical visual neurons studied. 2. Three types of dynamic changes were found in RF after injection of sombrevin: prolonged widening (up to 30 min), brief widening (up to 5–10 min), and prolonged narrowing (up to 20–30 min). 3. Considerable widening of RF (on average by 192%) takes place in 52% of neurons with a central excitatory zone of RF after injection of sombrevin, and significant narrowing of their excitatory centers (to 67%) is observed in 48% of cells. 4. Widening of RF is observed in 68% of neurons with a central inhibitory zone of RF (on average to 237%), and narrowing of RF is found in 32% (on average to 67%). 5. After injection of sombrevin sharper changes are observed in neurons with central inhibitory zones of RF.