Spatiotemporal testing and modeling of catfish retinal neurons.

The responses of retinal neurons depend on the interaction of both temporal and spatial aspects of a light stimulus. We developed a linear spatiotemporal model of receptor and horizontal cell layers in the catfish retina based on reciprocal interactions between both layers and coupling within each. Horizontal cell transfer properties were measured experimentally using white-noise intensity modulated light spots of different diameters and were compared with analytical predictions based on the model. Good agreement was obtained with a reasonable choice of model space-constants and feedback parameters. Furthermore, the same set of parameter values determined from spot experiments enabled accurate prediction of experimental horizontal cell responses to traveling gratings. The proposed feedback connections from horizontal cells to receptors quicken the time-course of responses in both layers and sharpen receptive fields.