Do the receptive fields in the primary visual cortex span a variability over the degree of elongation of the receptive fields?
The study investigates whether visual receptive fields in V1 vary in their elongation, linking this variability to geometric image transformations like non-uniform spatial scaling. Theoretical models predict that orientation selectivity becomes narrower as receptive fields elongate. This finding is consistent with biological measurements showing broader tuning near pinwheel centers and sharper tuning elsewhere, suggesting elongation variability is a fundamental property of cortical organization.