title: Do simple cells in primary visual cortex form a tight frame?
abstract: Sets of neuronal tuning curves, which describe the responses of neurons as functions of a stimulus, can serve as a basis for approximating other functions of stimulus parameters. In a function-approximating network, synaptic weights determined by a correlation-based Hebbian rule are closely related to the coefficients that result when a function is expanded in an orthogonal basis. Although neuronal tuning curves typically are not orthogonal functions, the relationship between function approximation and correlation-based synaptic weights can be retained if the tuning curves satisfy the conditions of a tight frame. We examine whether the spatial receptive fields of simple cells in cat and monkey primary visual cortex (V1) form a tight frame, allowing them to serve as a basis for constructing more complicated extrastriate receptive fields using correlation-based synaptic weights. Our calculations show that the set of V1 simple cell receptive fields is not tight enough to account for the acuity observed psychophysically.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Fisiología Celular, UNAM, Ciudad Universitaria S&slash;N, 04510 México D.F., México.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Salinas
authors.forename: L F
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Abbott
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002415:Cats; D000882:Haplorhini; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D013569:Synapses / Q000502:physiology; D014792:Visual Acuity / Q000502:physiology; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D014794:Visual Fields / Q000502:physiology; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*