  We analyze the interplay between contact geometry and Gabor filters signal
analysis in geometric models of the primary visual cortex. We show in
particular that a specific framed lattice and an associated Gabor system is
determined by the Legendrian circle bundle structure of the $3$-manifold of
contact elements on a surface (which models the V1-cortex), together with the
presence of an almost-complex structure on the tangent bundle of the surface
(which models the retinal surface). We identify a scaling of the lattice, also
dictated by the manifold geometry, that ensures the frame condition is
satisfied. We then consider a $5$-dimensional model where receptor profiles
also involve a dependence on frequency and scale variables, in addition to the
dependence on position and orientation. In this case we show that a proposed
profile window function does not give rise to frames (even in a distributional
sense), while a natural modification of the same generates Gabor frames with
respect to the appropriate lattice determined by the contact geometry.
