Information transmission rates of cat retinal ganglion cells
Information transmission rates of cat retinal ganglion cells
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DOI：
10.1152/jn.00796.2003
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发表时间：
2004-03-01
影响因子：
2.5
通讯作者：
Troy, JB
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Passaglia, CL;Troy, JB
为了评估视网膜棘波序列中编码的信息以及它可能如何被大脑中的受体神经元解码，我们记录了单个猫的X和Y神经节细胞，并用不同对比度和空间配置的随机调制模式对它们进行视觉刺激。对于每个模式，我们使用线性或非线性算法估计单元的信息率，并通过直接测量响应概率分布来估计某些模式的信息率。我们发现，神经节细胞棘波序列包含来自感受野中心和周围的信息，中心和周围具有相似的信号传递能力，机制之间的拮抗减少了信息传递，总信息率是有限的。我们还表明，线性解码算法可以捕获视网膜棘波序列中关于弱输入的所有可用信息，但它遗漏了大量关于强输入的信息。对于我们使用的最强刺激，最好的线性译码的信息速率在不同类型的神经节细胞中平均为40-70比特/S，而直接测量的速率约为20-40比特/S更大。这意味着在一定的刺激条件下，视觉信息被编码在视网膜棘波序列的时间结构中，需要一种非线性解码算法来提取时间编码信息。使用模拟的棘波序列，我们证明了许多时间结构可以由棘波产生的阈值来解释，而不一定指示复杂的编码方案。
To assess the information encoded in retinal spike trains and how it might be decoded by recipient neurons in the brain, we recorded from individual cat X and Y ganglion cells and visually stimulated them with randomly modulated patterns of various contrast and spatial configuration. For each pattern, we estimated the information rate of the cells using linear or nonlinear algorithms and for some patterns by directly measuring response probability distributions. We show that ganglion cell spike trains contain information from the receptive field center and surround, that the center and surround have similar signaling capacity, that antagonism between the mechanisms reduces information transmission, and that the total information rate is limited. We also show that a linear decoding algorithm can capture all of the information available in retinal spike trains about weak inputs, but it misses a substantial amount about strong inputs. For the strongest stimulus we used, the information rate of the best linear decoder averaged 40 - 70 bits/s across ganglion cell types, while the directly measured rate was around 20 - 40 bits/s greater. This implies that under certain stimulus conditions, visual information is encoded in the temporal structure of retinal spike trains and that a nonlinear decoding algorithm is needed to extract the temporally coded information. Using simulated spike trains, we demonstrate that much of the temporal structure may be explained by the threshold for spike generation and is not necessarily indicative of a complex coding scheme.