Backward conditioned connection and inhibitory reorganization of the receptive fields of cortical neurons as the basis of subconscious change in the thresholds of visual recognition and detection.

Three groups of facts are compared in this study: the significant adaptive and adaptational modification of the receptive fields of neurons of the visual cortex of the cat, the conditioned, selective, subsensory change in the threshold of perception (detection and recognition) by an individual of a letter in relation to two control letters, and the role of spatially-specialized cortical inhibition in the formation and adaptive modifications of the receptive fields and detector properties of neurons of the visual cortex. The relationship of the described phenomena and the commonality of their mechanisms is discussed.