New paper: Linear mechanistic models for the dorsal LGN

[Hans Ekkehard Plesser]

Dear Colleagues!

We would like to bring to your attention a new article on

   Linear mechanistic models for the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus
   of cat probed using drifting-grating stimuli

   by Gaute T. Einevoll and Hans E. Plesser

   Network: Comput. Neural Syst 13:503-530 (2002)

The article can be retrieved free of charge from 

   http://stacks.iop.org/0954-898X/13/503

until ca Oct 25, 2002, courtesy of IOP.

Best regards, 
Gaute Einevoll & Hans Ekkehard Plesser


Abstract. 
Experiments with sinusoidal visual stimuli in the early visual pathway
have traditionally been interpreted in terms of descriptive filter
models. We present an alternative mechanistic approach for
interpretation of this type of data recorded from X cells in the
dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (dLGN) of cat. A general, linear,
rate-based mathematical expression for the geniculate transfer ratio,
i.e. the ratio between the first-harmonic components of the output of
a geniculate relay cell and its retinal input, is derived. In linear
theory this ratio is independent of the signal processing occurring at
the retinal level. Further, the ratio is straightforwardly accessible
in experiments due to the presence of S-potentials, representing the
retinal input, in extracellular recordings from dLGN. The expression
accounts for feedforward inputs from retina and intrageniculate
interneurons as well as feedback inputs from cortex and the thalamic
reticular nucleus and can be used to experimentally test different
mechanistic models for the geniculate circuitry. Two examples of this
are considered: a purely feedforward model incorporating relay cell
inputs from retinal ganglion cells and interneurons, and a model
including cortical feedback inhibition of relay cells via
intrageniculate interneurons.