Different strategies for coding What and When in the archer fish retina
How can the central nervous system estimate the value of a continuous external stimulus, such as changing visual scene, from the noisy responses of nerve cell populations? The traditional approach for studying the neural code has focused on characterizing the noisy neural responses to external stimuli relative to stimulus onset time. However, stimulus onset time must also be estimated by the brain, making the utility of such an approach questionable. We addressed this issue using the framework of colour coding by the archer fish retinal ganglion cells, the only cells to project axons to the brain. Psychophysical measurements yield a lower bound on the archer fish colour discrimination accuracy, in a continuous-time stimulus. Recording the dynamic response of retinal ganglion cells to stimulus colour, we find that stimulus colour can be estimated from single cell responses with accuracy comparable to psychophysical accuracy. However, to extract this information, accurate estimate of stimulus onset is essential. We find that stimulus onset time can be estimated using a linear nonlinear readout mechanism, albeit accurate estimate requires the use of the responses of about two hundred cells. Thus, relatively large neural population are required to estimate 'When' stimulus occurres, whereas the temporal structure of single cell responses is sufficient to estimate 'What' stimulus.
Conference:
Computational and systems
neuroscience 2009, Salt Lake City, UT, United States, 26 Feb - 3 Mar, 2009.
Presentation Type:
Oral Presentation
Topic:
Oral Presentations
Citation:
(2009). Different strategies for coding What and When in the archer fish retina.
Front. Syst. Neurosci.
Conference Abstract:
Computational and systems
neuroscience 2009.
doi: 10.3389/conf.neuro.06.2009.03.021
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Received:
30 Jan 2009;
Published Online:
30 Jan 2009.