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Receptive Field Properties of the Superior Colliculus of the Rabbit

Abstract

ALTHOUGH richly endowed with both sensory and motor information1, the superior colliculus has in recent years been considered to play a very small part—literally that of a vestigial body—in the vision among higher mammals. In view of its intimate relationships with many central nervous centres1 and its homologous significance (as in the frog), a fuller reappraisal of its role in vision seems timely. Analysis of the receptive fields of these collicular cells was found a particularly effective approach here since levels both more peripheral (the retinal ganglion cells2) and parallel (the lateral geniculate body3) in the main visual pathway of the rabbit have been similarly investigated. There have also been related studies at several synaptic levels in the cat4–6, frog7 and monkey8.

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HILL, R. Receptive Field Properties of the Superior Colliculus of the Rabbit. Nature 211, 1407–1409 (1966). https://doi.org/10.1038/2111407a0

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