Analysis of extracellular spike waveforms and associated receptive fields of neurons in cat primary visual cortex

Abstract

Key points: Extracellular spikes recorded in the visual cortex (Area 17/18, V1) are commonly classified into either regular-spiking (RS) or fast-spiking (FS). Using multi-electrode arrays positioned in cat V1 and a broadband stimulus, we show that there is also a distinct class with positive-spiking (PS) waveforms. PS units were associated mainly with non-oriented receptive fields while RS and FS units had orientation-selective receptive fields. We suggest that PS units are recordings of axons originating from the thalamus. This conclusion was reinforced by our finding that we could record PS units after cortical silencing, but not record RS and FS units. The importance of our findings is th..