Binocular neurons in the nucleus lentiformis mesencephali in pigeons: responses to translational and rotational optic flowfields.

The pretectal nucleus lentiformis mesencephali (LM) receives direct input from the contralateral retina and is dedicated to the analysis of optic flowfields resulting from self-motion. The activity of 126 LM neurons in response to optic flow stimuli was recorded. As with previous studies, it was found that most neurons (approximately 90%) exhibited direction-selectivity to large-field stimuli moving in the contralateral hemifield. However, some neurons (approximately 10%) responded to stimulation of both eyes and had receptive field structures conducive for detection of particular patterns of optic flow resulting from either self-translation or self-rotation. These binocular neurons were maximally responsive to panoramic optic flowfields simulating either translational or rotational optic flow.