Responses of neurons of primary visual cortex of awake unrestrained rats to visual stimuli

It was shown in experiments with immobilized rats that the neurons of the rat visual cortex are basically indistinguishable in their properties from those described in other mammals. The present study investigates the receptive fields (RF) of the neurons in field 17 of the cortex of awake unrestrained rats. The goal of the study was to determine the extent to which the properties of the RF described in immobilized rats are found in rats in a state of active wakefulness, whether these properties change as a function of the behavior of the animals, the level of its attention, motivation, and exicitation and the extent to which RF properties remain stable over a long time.