Feature detection of visual neurons in the nucleus of the basal optic root in pigeons

Previous studies have shown that the nucleus of the basal optic root in birds is involved in optokinetic nystagmus, and its neurons respond not only to large-field stimuli but also to a single object moving through their excitatory receptive fields. The present study provides electrophysiological evidence that basal optic neurons in pigeons respond vigorously to motion of a black leading edge. The orientation of the edge is also an essential factor affecting visual responses of these cells, showing that any deviation of the edge from the direction perpendicular to the preferred direction decreases visual responses in most cases. Furthermore, visual responses increase as the edge is lengthened within the excitatory receptive field. However, a square, semicircle and isosceles with an area ratio of 1.00: 0.39: 0.50 but with an identical leading edge elicit almost the same responses, which are not dependent on the shape and area of visual stimuli. It suggests that these feature extraction properties, similar to those of neurons in the nucleus lentiformis mesencephali, may be specialized for detecting optokinetic stimuli rich in luminance contrasts, but not for realizing pattern recognition. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Inc.