title: Mapping nonlinear receptive field structure in primate retina at single cone resolution.
abstract: The function of a neural circuit is shaped by the computations performed by its interneurons, which in many cases are not easily accessible to experimental investigation. Here, we elucidate the transformation of visual signals flowing from the input to the output of the primate retina, using a combination of large-scale multi-electrode recordings from an identified ganglion cell type, visual stimulation targeted at individual cone photoreceptors, and a hierarchical computational model. The results reveal nonlinear subunits in the circuity of OFF midget ganglion cells, which subserve high-resolution vision. The model explains light responses to a variety of stimuli more accurately than a linear model, including stimuli targeted to cones within and across subunits. The recovered model components are consistent with known anatomical organization of midget bipolar interneurons. These results reveal the spatial structure of linear and nonlinear encoding, at the resolution of single cells and at the scale of complete circuits.
authors.affiliation: Janelia Research Center, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, United States.|Center for Neural Science, New York, United States.
authors.forename: Jeremy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Freeman
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, United States.|Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, United States.
authors.forename: Greg D
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5942-2679
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Field
authors.affiliation: Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, United States.
authors.forename: Peter H
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6193-4454
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, United States.|Department of Neuroscience, University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Greschner
authors.affiliation: Institute of Photonics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Deborah E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Gunning
authors.affiliation: Institute of Photonics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Keith
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mathieson
authors.affiliation: Institute for Particle Physics, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, United States.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sher
authors.affiliation: Institute for Particle Physics, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, United States.
authors.forename: Alan M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Litke
authors.affiliation: Department of Statistics, Columbia University, Columbia, United States.
authors.forename: Liam
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Paninski
authors.affiliation: Center for Neural Science, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York, United States.
authors.forename: Eero P
authors.initials: EP
authors.lastname: Simoncelli
authors.affiliation: Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, United States.|Department of Neurosurgery, Stanford School of Medicine, Stanford, United States.
authors.forename: E J
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5613-0248
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Chichilnisky
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003198:Computer Simulation; D008251:Macaca / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology*; D008959:Models, Neurological; D056347:Neuroanatomical Tract-Tracing Techniques; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012160:Retina / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology*; D017949:Retinal Cone Photoreceptor Cells / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: computational biology; encoding models; macaque; neuroscience; nonlinearity; systems biology