Human cerebral cortical function degrades during old age. Much of this change may result from a degradation of intracortical inhibition during senescence. We used multibarreled microelectrodes to study the effects of electrophoretic application of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), the GABA type a (GABAa) receptor agonist muscimol, and the GABAa receptor antagonist bicuculline, respectively, on the properties of individual V1 cells in old monkeys. Bicuculline exerted a much weaker effect on neuronal responses in old than in young animals, confirming a degradation of GABA-mediated inhibition. On the other hand, the administration of GABA and muscimol resulted in improved visual function. Many treated cells in area V1 of old animals displayed responses typical of young cells. The present results have important implications for the treatment of the sensory, motor, and cognitive declines that accompany old age.

Throughout the animal kingdom, the sight of a rapidly approaching object usually signals danger and elicits an escape response. Gibson suggested that the symmetrical expansion of an object's image (looming) is the critical variable determining that the object is on a collision course with the observer. Similarly, large expanding flow-fields like those produced by locomotion may precipitate manoeuvres such as turning or landing. From such observations it has been shown that the optic flow parameter, tau, which specifies time to contact with the approaching object best fits the behavioural data. We describe a subpopulation of neurons in the nucleus rotundus of the pigeon brain that respond selectively to objects moving on a collision course towards the bird.

The responses of single cells to luminance, color and computer-generated spots, bars, kinematograms, and motion-in-depth stimuli were studied in the nucleus rotundus of pigeons. Systematic electrode penetrations revealed that there are several functionally distinct subdivisions within rotundus where six classes of visual-selective cells cluster. Cells in the dorsal-posterior zone of the nucleus respond selectively to motion in depth (i.e. an expanding or contracting figure in the visual field). Most cells recorded from the dorsal-anterior region responded selectively to the color of the stimulus. The firing rate of the cells in the anterior-central zone, however, is dramatically modulated by changing the level of illumination over the whole visual field. Cells in the ventral subdivision strongly respond to moving occlusion edges and very small moving objects, with either excitatory or inhibitory responses. These results indicate that visual information processing of color, ambient illumination, and motion in depth are segregated into different subdivisions at the level of nucleus rotundus in the avian brain.