Fig. 5: Neuronal sensitivity to plaid segmentation cues.

a The left panels show the distribution of the N/P ratio (neuronal/psychophysical threshold); each cell contributes two data points, one for each direction of pattern motion. In the right panels, psychophysical threshold (ordinate) is plotted versus neuronal threshold (abscissa) for all units in the sample. Data in the top (bottom) row is from monkey N (S). b The normalized threshold ratio is plotted against the magnitude of the difference between the best plaid direction and a unit’s preferred direction. The “best” direction was defined as the plaid pattern direction that was closest to a unit’s preferred direction (measured with single sine gratings). Data was first binned by normalized preferred direction (10° bins), threshold ratios were then normalized to the maximum and averaged within each bin. Units with preferred directions that were slightly greater or less than plaid component directions showed the greatest difference in sensitivity across plaid pattern directions. c Rose histograms of the distribution of preferred directions for all MT units recorded from each monkey.