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29 - Mathematical model and computer simulation of visual recognition in retina and tectum opticum of amphibians

from Olfaction, vision and cognition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2012

Uwe an der Heiden
Affiliation:
Universität Witten/Herdecke
Gerhard Roth
Affiliation:
Universität Witten/Herdecke
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Summary

The retina

Mathematical model of amphibian retina

The retina is composed of a variety of cell types including the photoreceptors, horizontal cells, bipolar cells, amacrine cells, and retina ganglion cells (for a review see Grüsser & Grüsser-Cornehls, 1976). Only the retina ganglion cells (RGCs) send axons to the brain of the animals. Therefore any visual information the brain may rely on is mediated by cells of this type.

According to their response properties the RGCs are usually divided into four classes, which here for simplicity are called R1, R2, R3, and R4. We have restricted our attention to the classes R2 and R3 because these form the majority (about 93%) of cells projecting to the tectum opticum, which is that area in the brain where recognition of prey objects is supposed to be centered.

The recognition process starts in the retina. The overall operation of the ganglion cells (R2, R3) and their precursors (photoreceptors, etc.) on some arbitrary visual scene can be decomposed into the following more primitive operational components:

(1) Let x(s, t) be any distribution of light in the visual field, where x denotes light intensity (we do not consider colored scenes), s = (s1, s2) some point in the visual field, and t is time.

(2) These ganglion cells do not respond to stationary, but only to transitory, illumination.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1988

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