SPATIO-TEMPORAL RECEPTIVE-FIELD MEASUREMENT OF RETINAL NEURONS BY RANDOM PATTERN STIMULATION AND CROSS-CORRELATION

A method is developed for the measurement of the spatio-temporal receptive field (STRF) of neurons in the retina. The test input is an unsteady visual pattern randomly modulated in both space and time, and the output is the stochastic time course of the intracellular response. The STRF is expressed in terms of the spatio-temporal Wiener kernels calculated through a special cross-correlation algorithm between the response and the stimulus-related information. The method is an extension of existing white-noise identification techniques to include the spatial domain. Consideration is given to the practical implementation of the required stimulus pattern, and has led to several alternative approaches. Measurements of the space-dependent component of the STRF for neurons in the catfish retina are presented to show the utility of this type of approach to understanding the neural mechanisms of vision. The method is equally applicable to higher visual processes. Copyright © 1979 by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.