Sensitivity to relative disparity in early visual cortex of pigmented and albino ferrets
C. Kalberlah, C. Distler & K.-P. Hoffmann
Exp. Brain Res. 192: 379-389, 2009
- To investigate binocular interactions as the neuronal substrate for disparity sensitivity in the ferret (Mustela
putorius furo), we measured the effects of relative horizontal disparities on responses of neurons in areas 17
and 18 of the visual cortex. Stimulation by moving bars and sinusoidal gratings showed that about half of our sample
in pigmented ferrets was sensitive to relative horizontal disparity. This also included many neurons, which were
classified as only monocularly activated when testing either eye alone. However, the tuning width was about two
or three times coarser (median tuning width 4 degrees of visual angle) than that in the cat. In albino ferrets,
only 8% of the neurons in the early visual cortex displayed some sort of disparity-dependent binocular interactions,
but none could be clearly identified as relative disparity-coding neuron.
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