Torsten Wiesel recounts Hubel-Wiesel discovery of orientation selectivity in primary visual cortex

Torsten Wiesel recalls how he and David Hubel began single-cell recordings of the visual system about 60 years ago, when visual cortex was largely unexplored. Their key finding was that primary visual cortex cells respond selectively to the orientation of contours, building on Kuffler's center-surround receptive field work in retinal ganglion cells. After their 1969 paper, a well-known neurobiologist wrote to them. Wiesel also discusses synaptic transmission, spike frequency coding, and his NIH mentorship, stressing the explorer mindset in basic research.