Relation Between Retinotopical and Orientation Maps in Visual Cortex
A recent study of cat visual cortex reported abrupt changes in the positions of the receptive fields of adjacent neurons whose preferred orientations strongly differed (Das & Gilbert, 1997). Using a simple cortical model, we show that this covariation of discontinuities in maps of orientation preference and local distortions in maps of visual space reflects collective effects of the lateral cortical feedback.