Two-dimensional analysis of retinal information transfer

Abstract

A two-dimensional, time-dependent analysis of the mammalian retina is presented. A computer simulation of experimental data considers ganglion-cell activity as a two-dimensional process. The properties of the simulation model were examined with several input stimuli. Circular receptive fields enhance not only borders, but other spatial complexities, such as ends of lines and angles. The enhancement is remarkably insensitive to the shape of receptive fields. The processing of the input picture by on-center and off-center receptive fields is complementary but the division of labor varies with the task.

Manipulation of two-dimensionally periodic stimulus patterns

“…As a sampling function in the space domain, a hexagonal array permits smoother interpolation than an orthogonal one (Petersen & Middleton, 1962), which is advantageous in imageprocessing studies.' including retinal modeling (Ochs & Peinado, 1975). In fact, since the retinal mosaic of receptor cells is close-packed (locally, at least), this is the spatial sampling function used by the visual process.…”