Receptive field properties of neurons in the primary visual cortex under photopic and scotopic lighting conditions.

Knowledge of the physiology of the primate visual cortex (area V-1) comes mostly from studies done in photopic conditions, in which retinal cones are active and rods play little or no part. Conflicting results have come from research into the effects of dark adaptation on receptive field organization of cells in the retina and the lateral geniculate nucleus. These studies claim either that the effect of the surround disappears with dark adaptation or that it does not. The current study has as its objective a comparison of responses of V-1 cells in awake-alert macaque monkeys under conditions of light and dark adaptation. We reasoned that basic receptive field properties of V-1 cells such as orientation selectivity, direction selectivity, and end-stopping should be preserved in scotopic conditions if the receptive field organization of antecedent cells is maintained in dim light. Our results indicate that dark adaptation does not alter basic V-1 receptive field characteristics such as selectivity for orientation, direction, and bar length.