Visual cells in the inferior colliculus of the cat.

Extracellular recordings from 91 cells of the pericentral nucleus (ICP) of the inferior colliculus of the cat revealed that 83 of them were responsive to auditory stimuli and the other 8 to visual stimuli. All visually driven cells were binocular and showed large receptive fields located in the contralateral hemifield. The best stimulus was either a spot or a bar moved in any direction across the receptive field. No directional selectivity was found. It is suggested that the visual input to the ICP participates in an integrated reflex-orienting behavior, in which the visual information is important for the localization of the sound source.