Sensitivity of the cat lateral geniculate body neurons to orientation of the brightness gradient vector

A new property of visual neurons: their sensitivity to orientation and the vector brightness gradient, was revealed and described. Receptive fields of the lateral geniculate body neurons in the cat have preferred orientation maximum reaction (average mean of orientation sensitivity coefficient--0.55 +/- 0.20). The preferred orientation mainly has a radial or tangential trend in the visual field. Temporal characteristics of the neuronal responses were analysed. A role of inhibition processes in the orientation sensitivity is discussed.