A fast stimulus procedure to determine local receptive field properties of motion-sensitive visual interneurons.

We present a method to determine, within a few seconds, the local preferred direction (LPD) and local motion sensitivity (LMS) in small patches of the receptive fields of wide-held motion-sensitive neurons. This allows us to map, even during intracellular recordings, the distribution of LPD and LMS over the huge receptive fields of neurons sensing self-motions of the animal. Comparisons of the response field of a given neuron with the optic flow fields caused by different movements in space, allows us to specify the particular motion of the animal sensed by that neuron. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd