Acceleration sensitivity and habituation in PMLS neurons

Abstract

The cat posteromedial lateral suprasylvian area is a cortical region implicated in the analysis of visual motion during locomotion. Its cells show a population preference for centrifugal motion. We have found that cell responses habituate to repetitive stimulation with constant speed stimuli. This is not consistent with PMLS's hypothesised role because sustained motion during locomotion would strongly attenuate responsiveness. We tested PMLS neurons with moving sine-wave gratings using a range of constant accelerations or decelerations (0 to 5, 10 or 20 Hz in 0.5, 1 or 2s; 0.025-0.2cpd) and a range of constant velocity stimuli (0-25 Hz). The stimulus sequence was: stationary grating, moving,..