A quantitative study of the classification and stability of ocular dominance in the cat's visual cortex.

We recorded from single cells in the cat's visual cortex to quantitatively evaluate (1) the reliability of subjective assessments of ocular dominance (101 cells) and (2) the stability of ocular dominance over time (25 cells). We found that the correlation between subjective and objective measures of this variable was poorer than expected, and was worst for cells with low overall response strengths. This result appears to reflect variability in the subjective assessment procedure. For the second part of the study, we recorded from single cortical cells of 5-week-old kittens, and made repeated objective measurements of ocular dominance over time. Twenty-four of the twenty-five cells examined were quite stable in ocular dominance for periods so long as 8 h. One unit was encountered which showed substantial progressive shifts in ocular dominance over time.