Long-range sensitization in the vertebrate retina
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- The natural visual world is highly structured. Physical objects and the speeds at which they commonly move induce strong correlations in both space and time. A growing body of recent work suggests that the retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), the output of the retina, act as a set of detection channels, each tuned to specific and ecologically-relevant visual features. In this view, classical theories of signal detection indicate that a feature detector striving for optimality ought to use the long-range information inherent in natural scenes, as a feature's presence in one location provides statistical expectations about its presence elsewhere. One common example of such a visual stimulus is an object with similar texture across its extent. In this work, I show that RGCs change their processing of local stimuli in response to stimulation in the periphery of the visual field. I first describe experiments which show that strong visual input in the periphery, far outside the classical receptive field, increases the local sensitivity of RGCs, here called long-range sensitization. This in- creased sensitivity also supports improved discrimination of similar stimuli, as well as detection of low-contrast stimuli. I then show that this process exhibits a simple form of pattern-specificity: RGCs increase their local sensitivity more when the peripheral and central stimuli share spatial frequency statistics, as is the case in fine textures. Using a combination of pharmacology and modeling, I then show that long-range sensitization requires input from wide-field, nonlinear inhibitory interneurons. Lastly, I present evidence that long-range sensitization is seen in a a novel perceptual effect in humans, in which strong surround stimulation improves the detection of a small central stimulus. The results presented here establish that the retina uses long-range statistics of the visual world to better encode local visual features, and present how such improved stimulus encoding may play a role in perception.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2018; ©2018 |
| Publication date | 2018; 2018 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Naecker, Benjamin |
|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Baccus, Stephen A |
| Thesis advisor | Baccus, Stephen A |
| Thesis advisor | Druckmann, Shaul |
| Thesis advisor | Ganguli, Surya, 1977- |
| Thesis advisor | Norcia, Anthony Matthew |
| Degree committee member | Druckmann, Shaul |
| Degree committee member | Ganguli, Surya, 1977- |
| Degree committee member | Norcia, Anthony Matthew |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Neurosciences Program. |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Benjamin Naecker. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Neurosciences Program. |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2018. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2018 by Benjamin Nathan Naecker
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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