Lesson plan

Complex cell

Complex cells can be found in the primary visual cortex (V1), the secondary visual cortex (V2), and Brodmann area 19 (V3). Like a simple cell, a complex cell will respond primarily to oriented edges and gratings, however it has a degree of spatial invariance. This means that its receptive field cannot be mapped into fixed excitatory and inhibitory zones. Rather, it will respond to patterns of light in a certain orientation within a large receptive field, regardless of the exact location. Some complex cells respond optimally only to movement in a certain direction. These cells were discovered by Torsten Wiesel and David Hubel in the early 1960s. They refrained from reporting on the complex cells in (Hubel 1959) because they did not feel that they understood them well enough at the time. In Hubel and Wiesel (1962), they reported that complex cells were intermixed with simple cells and when excitatory and inhibitory regions could be established, the summation and mutual antagonism properties didn't hold. The difference between the receptive fields and the characteristics of simple and complex cells is the hierarchical convergent nature of visual processing. Complex cells receive inputs from a number of simple cells.…

Back to article

Article summary

Complex cells can be found in the primary visual cortex (V1), the secondary visual cortex (V2), and Brodmann area 19 (V3). Like a simple cell, a complex cell will respond primarily to oriented edges and gratings, however it has a degree of spatial invariance. This means that its receptive field cannot be mapped into fixed excitatory and inhibitory zones. Rather, it will respond to patterns of light in a certain orientation within a large receptive field, regardless of the exact location. Some complex cells respond optimally only to movement in a certain direction. These cells were discovered by Torsten Wiesel and David Hubel in the early 1960s. They refrained from reporting on the complex cells in (Hubel 1959) because they did not feel that they understood them well enough at the time. In Hubel and Wiesel (1962), they reported that complex cells were intermixed with simple cells and when excitatory and inhibitory regions could be established, the summation and mutual antagonism properties didn't hold. The difference between the receptive fields and the characteristics of simple and complex cells is the hierarchical convergent nature of visual processing. Complex cells receive inputs from a number of simple cells.…

Key claims

No claims recorded.

Discussion questions

  1. Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
  2. Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
  3. If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?

Bibliography

No sources recorded.

Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.