Abstract

Many visual neurons linearly combine signals from the receptors or from other cells which themselves form linear combinations of receptor signals. In both cases, if the noise that limits cell performance is confined to the receptors, the peak sensitivity of the cell is entirely determined by the magnitude of the receptor noise and the normalized shape of the cells’ receptive field. This simple result may be used to estimate the receptor noise from the sensitivity of retinal or geniculate cells as well as to predict sensitivity of higher-order cells from that of lower-order cells. Consequences of this constraint are illustrated for actual primate geniculate and cortical cells and for model cortical cells.

© 1988 Optical Society of America