Synonyms
Response properties; Response selectivity
Definition
A cell’s receptive field is the region of space that causes the cell to either increase or decrease its discharge rate. The receptive field may also be selective for the particular type of stimulus within the region of space.
Historical Background
Although two scientists, Stephen Kuffler and Horace Barlow, independently began studying the receptive fields of ganglion cells in the retina in 1953, the most successful mapping of receptive fields was conducted by Hubel and Wiesel (1959). Interestingly, the success resulted from an accidental finding. They were trying to find selective neural responses in primary visual cortex by moving around a dark spot on a rectangular slide. The neuron would sometimes increase its discharge rate, but it took them a while to realize that it was not caused by the dot; instead, it was the edge of the slide moving in a particular direction. With this insight, they went on to discover a columnar...
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Bear, M. F., Connors, B. W., & Paradiso, M. A. (Eds.). (2007). Neuroscience: Exploring the brain (3rd ed.). Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Chap. 9, 10, 11.
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Vettel, J. (2018). Receptive Fields. In: Kreutzer, J.S., DeLuca, J., Caplan, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57111-9_1396
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57111-9_1396
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