Abstract
1. The receptive field properties of visual neurons in the retina of the catfish are studied by a white noise spatio-temporal stimulus. The spatial and temporal inputs of the stimulus are independent and lead to complete linear characterizations and local nonlinear characterizations of the neural response. 2. Horizontal cells, bipolar cells, and sustained or Type N amacrine cells all yield spatially coherent linear correlations. The horizontal cells have the shortest latency by these methods and exhibit a late depolarizing component that is wider in spatial extent than the initial hyperpolarizing component. Depolarizing Type N neurons have center-hyperpolarizing local nonlinearity. 3. Transient or Type C amacrine cells do not correlate well with the intensity of the stimulus, even though the Fast variety responds vigorously to the stimulus. 4. Ganglion cells are classified into Excitatory, Inhibitory and Biphasic classes based upon their linear correlations. Some ganglions exhibit responses dependent upon the orientation of stimulus. Although linear correlation of the Excitatory class is similar to that of the depolarizing Type N cell, the locally nonlinear character of these cell types is distinct. The receptive field of the Inhibitory ganglion cells has strong locally excitatory nonlinearity.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Arnett, D.W.: Microcomputer-based visual stimulus generator (submitted to Vision Res. 1981)
Arnett, D.W.: Optical pattern generator for visual research. Med. Biol. Eng. 14, 532–537 (1976)
Brown, P.B., Maxfield, B.W., Moraff, H.: Electronics for Neurobiologists. Cambridge, MA, London: The MIT Press 1973
Chan, R.Y., Naka, K.-I.: Spatial organization of catfish retinal neurons. II. Circular stimuli. J. Neurophysiol. 52, 832–850 (1980)
Davis, G.W., Naka, K.-I.: Spatial organization of catfish retinal neurons. I. Single- and random-bar stimulation. J. Neurophysiol. 43, 807–831 (1980)
Enroth-Cugell, C., Robson, J.G.: The contrast sensitivity of retinal ganglion cells of the cat. J. Physiol. 187, 517–512 (1966)
Hartline, H.K.: The response of single optic nerve fibers of vertebrate eye to illumination of the retina. Am. J. Physiol. 121, 400–415 (1938)
Kaneko, A., Hashimoto, H.: Electrophysiological study of single neurons in the inner nuclear layer of the carp retina. Vision Res. 9, 37–55 (1969)
Kuffler, S.W.: Discharge patterns and functional organization of mammalian retina. J. Neurophysiol. 16, 37–68 (1953)
Lasater, E.M.: Physiological and pharmacological studies of the spatio-temporal receptive fields of vertebrate retinal neurons. Ph. D. Thesis, University of Texas Medical Branch, 1980
Marmarelis, P.Z., Naka, K.-I.: Spatial distribution of potential in a flat cell: Application to the catfish horizontal cell layers. Biophys. J. 12, 1515–1532 (1972)
Marmarelis, P.Z., Naka, K.-I.: Nonlinear analysis and synthesis of receptive-field responses in the catfish retina. I. Horizontal cell to ganglion cell chain. J. Neurophysiol. 36, 605–618 (1973a)
Marmarelis, P.Z., Naka, K.-I.: Nonlinear analysis and synthesis of receptive-field responses in the catfish retina. II. One-input white noise analysis. J. Neurophysiol. 36, 619–633 (1973b)
Marmarelis, P.Z., Naka, K.-I.: Nonlinear analysis and synthesis of receptive-field responses in the catfish retina. III. Two-input white noise analysis. J. Neurophysiol. 36, 634–648 (1973c)
Naka, K.-I., Rushton, W.A.H.: The generation and spread of S-potentials in fish. J. Physiol. 194, 259–269 (1967)
Naka, K.-I., Nye, P.W.: Role of horizontal cells in organization of the catfish retinal receptive field. J. Neurophysiol. 34, 785–801 (1971)
Naka, K.-I., Marmarelis, P.S., Chan, R.Y.: Morphological and functional identifications of catfish retinal neurons. III. Functional identification. J. Neurophysiol. 38, 92–131 (1975)
Naka, K.-I., Ohtsuka, T.: Morphological and functional identifications of catfish retinal neurons. II. Morphological identification. J. Neurophysiol. 38, 72–91 (1975)
Naka, K.-I.: Functional organization of catfish retina. J. Neurophysiol. 40, 26–43 (1977)
O'Leary, D.P., Honrubia, V.: On-line idenztification of sensory systems using pseudorandom binary noise perturbations. Biophys. J. 15, 505–532 (1975)
Powers, R.L.: Iontophoretic studies of visual neurons in Drosophila melanogaster. Ph. D. Thesis, California Institute of Technology, 1979
Rodieck, R.W.: Quantitative analysis of cat retinal ganglion cell response to visual stimuli. Vision Res. 5, 585–601 (1965)
Stevens, J.K., Gerstrien, G.L.: Spatio-temporal organization of cat's lateral geniculate receptive fields. J. Neurophysiol. 39, 213–238 (1976)
Victor, J.D., Shapley, R.M., Knight, B.W.: Nonlinear analysis of cat retinal ganglion cells in the frequency domain. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 74, 3068–3072 (1977)
Yasui, S., Davis, G.W., Naka, K.-I.: Spatio-temporal receptive fields measurement of retinal neurons by random pattern stimulation and cross-correlation. IEEE Trans. Biomed. Engr. 26, 263–272 (1979)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Powers, R.L., Arnett, D.W. Spatio-temporal cross-correlation analysis of catfish retinal neurons. Biol. Cybern. 41, 179–196 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00340319
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00340319