Visual response properties of single neurons in the temporal pole of behaving monkeys

1. The responses of single neurons in the anterior part of the temporal cortex in monkeys, mainly the temporopolar cortex, area 36, and the most anterior part of area TE of von Bonin and Bailey (1947) (these areas were designated here as the temporal pole), were examined during the performance of a visual recognition memory task. The visual stimulus (sample stimulus) was presented when the monkey pressed a lever. The same sample stimulus was presented one to four times and, thereafter, a new stimulus was presented. The monkeys were trained to discriminate the new stimulus from the sample stimulus and to release the lever in response to the new stimulus. We used colored photographs of natural objects (human faces, monkeys, foods, and non-food objects) as complex visual stimuli or computer-generated two-dimensional shapes (a red square, a green circle, etc.) as simple visual stimuli. 2. In total, the activity of 311 neurons was recorded, and 225 of these responded to at least one visual stimulus. All visual...