IMAGE REPRESENTATION IN THE PRIMARY VISUAL CORTEX

本申请中描述的调查旨在将 来自视觉生理学和心理物理学的确定结果- 已知的信息处理原理，并在此过程中 确定这些原则在多大程度上是处理 感官输入。这种方法采用了解析和计算相结合的方法。 通过已建立的生理数据来检验其预测的技术。 视皮层的部分区域是研究最充分的区域之一。 这样的研究得到了广泛的 心理物理实验。因此，个体的属性 神经元和视觉通道是成熟的，其特征是 这些神经元在视觉皮质上的排列是已知的 越来越精致。人们越来越关注互联互通 在这些不同的神经元之间，以及由这些神经元介导的相互作用 关系。然而，答案落后于这一切的问题 进步是，为什么？ 一种直观的想法是， 单个神经元，它们在皮质上的空间排列，以及它们的 交互都是为了在 最大限度地利用现有神经资源的方式。是这样的 资源将包括神经元的数量、神经元的大小 突触，以及它们之间连接的长度。这 应用程序继续进行量化开发和测试这些功能的工作 概念。 到目前为止，这类工作已经揭示了有多少红衣主教 视觉神经元的特性及其在皮质上的排列 当突触是神经信息的基本单位时出现 正在处理。当前的应用程序继续追求这些 通过对许多概念之间的联系寻求解释来理解概念 视觉神经元的类型和归因于这些的相互作用 关系。假设这样的连接允许视觉 系统在不断变化的视觉环境中继续优化自己， 由这些相互作用产生的许多复杂现象是 优化的结果。 这些研究的结果将用于指导 更复杂的神经信息处理模型，可能是 适用于中枢神经系统的其他区域。此外, 这种材料在生物和生物之间提供了重要的定量联系 图像表征的综合方法。

The investigations described in this application are designed to link established results from visual physiology and psychophysics with well- known principles of information processing, and, in the process establish the extent that such principles underlie the processing of sensory inputs. This approach employs analytic and computational techniques whose predictions are tested by established physiologic data. Portions of the visual cortex are among the most well-studied regions of the brain, and such studies are complemented by extensive bodies of psychophysical experiments. Consequently, the properties of individual neurons and visual channels are well-established, and the characteristic arrangement of these neurons over the visual cortex is known with increasing refinement. There is growing focus on the connections between these different neurons, and the interactions mediated by these connections. However, the question whose answer lags behind all of this progress is, why? It is intuitively appealing to think that the properties of the individual neurons, their spatial arrangement over the cortex, and their interactions are all geared towards representing visual stimuli in a manner that maximizes the use of available neural resources. Such resources would include the number of neurons, the size of their synapses, and the length of the connections between them. This application continues work that quantitatively develops and tests these concepts. Thus far, work of this type has revealed how many of the cardinal properties of visual neurons and their arrangement over the cortex emerges when the synapse is the fundamental unit of neural information processing. The current application continues its pursuit of these concepts by seeking an explanation for the connections between the many types of visual neurons and the interactions ascribed to these connections. It is hypothesized that such connections permit the visual system to continue to optimize itself in a changing visual environment, and that many complex phenomena produced by these interactions are the consequence of the optimization. The results from these studies will be used to guide the development of more complex models of neural information processing, and may be applicable to other regions of the central nervous system. In addition, this material provides an important quantitative link between biologic and synthetic methods of image representation.