title: Response properties of ON-OFF retinal ganglion cells to high-order stimulus statistics.
abstract: The visual stimulus statistics are the fundamental parameters to provide the reference for studying visual coding rules. In this study, the multi-electrode extracellular recording experiments were designed and implemented on bullfrog retinal ganglion cells to explore the neural response properties to the changes in stimulus statistics. The changes in low-order stimulus statistics, such as intensity and contrast, were clearly reflected in the neuronal firing rate. However, it was difficult to distinguish the changes in high-order statistics, such as skewness and kurtosis, only based on the neuronal firing rate. The neuronal temporal filtering and sensitivity characteristics were further analyzed. We observed that the peak-to-peak amplitude of the temporal filter and the neuronal sensitivity, which were obtained from either neuronal ON spikes or OFF spikes, could exhibit significant changes when the high-order stimulus statistics were changed. These results indicate that in the retina, the neuronal response properties may be reliable and powerful in carrying some complex and subtle visual information.
authors.affiliation: School of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.affiliation: School of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Han-Yan
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Gong
authors.affiliation: School of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Hai-Qing
authors.initials: HQ
authors.lastname: Gong
authors.affiliation: School of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Pei-Ji
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: School of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China. Electronic address: pmzhang@sjtu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Pu-Ming
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials; D000818:Animals; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D011892:Rana catesbeiana; D012165:Retinal Ganglion Cells / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: High-order statistics; Linear-nonlinear model; Retinal ganglion cells; Sensitivity; Temporal filter