This chapter will present the history and an estimate of current
understanding ofthe spatial architecture of primary visual cortex
(V-1, striate cortex, area 17) in primates. Special emphasis will be
placed on experimental techniques, mathematical and computa-tional
analyses, and the relevance of V-1 architecture to current work in
machine vision. An attempt has been made to provide a representative
coverage of the primary literature,but completeness in this regard is
not claimed. Rather, the intention is to provide an overview of the
difficulties, both conceptual and experimental, which have
characterizedthis field for the past fifty years, and to provide some
insight into the importance of spatial architecture in visual cortex
to both biological and machine vision.History will be divided into
four periods in which the status of understanding mapping in V-1 will
be surveyed: Pre-Classical Prior to physiological demonstration of
cortical topography Classical Initial demonstrations of topography,
but no analytic characterization Middle First attempts at
magnification factor data fitting and introduction of complex log
model.