PSYCO275 Chapter Notes - Chapter 9: Ocular Dominance Column, Retinal Ganglion Cell, Receptive Field
13 Nov 2016
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An on-center cell is when a spot of light falling in the receptive fields central circle excites the cell. On-centre cell: when the light in the surround is turned off, firing rate increases briefly, which is an offset response. A light shining in both the centre and the surround would produce a weak increase in firing. Information transmitted form the retinal ganglion cells to the visual areas in the brain does not give equal weight to all visual field regions. Rather, it emphasized regions containing differences in luminance- areas along the edges. Orientation detectors are maximally excited by bars of light oriented in a particular direction rather than by spots of light. Visual cortex cells with this property are known as simple cells. Luminance contrast is the amount of light an object reflects relative to its surroundings. Complex cells are maximally excited by bars of light moving in a particular direction through the visual field.
