Influence of prolonged optic flow stimuli on spontaneous activities of cat PMLS neurons

Changes in neuronal spontaneous activities after prolonged optic flow stimulation (using the three basic flow modes: translation, radiation and rotation) were inve stigated by extracellular single-unit recording in cortical area PMLS of the cat. The results showed that the evoked responses decreased with the prolongation of visual stimuli, and the spontaneous activities usually dropped to a lower level after the stimuli were withdrawn. Generally, the reduction in spontaneous activities was larger after adaptation in the preferred direction than in the non-preferred direction. This difference was much pronounced to translation stimuli, but relatively insignificant to radiation and rotation. These points suggest that non-specific fatigue may act as the key factor in adaptation to simple translation, while some kinds of more complicated, direction-specific mechanism may be involved in adaptation to the complex optic flow patterns. In addition, PMLS may play an important role in perception and adaptation to complex motion and the relevant motion after-effects.