The broad goals of this project are to understand the computations that can be performed by a neural circuit. The vertebrate retina is chosen as a model system, because of our ability to achieve complete recordings of its output while stimulating with realistic patterns of light, as well as its intricate and well-characterized anatomy. The retina's representation of visual stimuli changes dramatically between the photoreceptors, which use a camera-like representation where each cell is a pixel, and the ganglion cells, which represent the image with a complex and highly overlapping basis set of visual features. We seek to characterize the manner in which visual scenes are represented by the complete population of retinal ganglion cells.
The Specific Aims are: 1) characterize the diversity and stereotypy of the visual features represented within the population of ganglion cells by performing functional classification;2) measure the correlation both within and among the parallel visual channels;3) formulate decoding strategies to perform visual discrimination using large populations of ganglion cells. Our functional classification will minimize the effects of subtle variations from one retinal preparation to the next by recording simultaneously from 200+ ganglion cells from a single retina and will use information theory to assess functional differences using a battery of visual stimuli including natural movies. Our characterization of the patterns of correlation among groups of ganglion cells will use new information-theoretic techniques, including the maximum entropy approach. Finally, our decoders will seek to make use of our models of correlation in large populations to improve the accuracy of visual discriminations.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Eye Institute (NEI)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01EY014196-06
Application #
7645699
Study Section
Biology and Diseases of the Posterior Eye Study Section (BDPE)
Program Officer
Greenwell, Thomas
Project Start
2002-09-30
Project End
2012-06-30
Budget Start
2009-07-01
Budget End
2010-06-30
Support Year
6
Fiscal Year
2009
Total Cost
$380,506
Indirect Cost
Name
Princeton University
Department
Biochemistry
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
002484665
City
Princeton
State
NJ
Country
United States
Zip Code
08544
Tka?ik, Gašper; Mora, Thierry; Marre, Olivier et al. (2015) Thermodynamics and signatures of criticality in a network of neurons. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 112:11508-13
Marre, Olivier; Botella-Soler, Vicente; Simmons, Kristina D et al. (2015) High Accuracy Decoding of Dynamical Motion from a Large Retinal Population. PLoS Comput Biol 11:e1004304
Palmer, Stephanie E; Marre, Olivier; Berry 2nd, Michael J et al. (2015) Predictive information in a sensory population. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 112:6908-13
da Silveira, Rava Azeredo; Berry 2nd, Michael J (2014) High-fidelity coding with correlated neurons. PLoS Comput Biol 10:e1003970
Tka?ik, Gašper; Marre, Olivier; Amodei, Dario et al. (2014) Searching for collective behavior in a large network of sensory neurons. PLoS Comput Biol 10:e1003408
Aljadeff, Johnatan; Segev, Ronen; Berry 2nd, Michael J et al. (2013) Spike triggered covariance in strongly correlated gaussian stimuli. PLoS Comput Biol 9:e1003206
Kaardal, Joel; Fitzgerald, Jeffrey D; Berry 2nd, Michael J et al. (2013) Identifying functional bases for multidimensional neural computations. Neural Comput 25:1870-90
Schwartz, Greg; Macke, Jakob; Amodei, Dario et al. (2012) Low error discrimination using a correlated population code. J Neurophysiol 108:1069-88
Marre, Olivier; Amodei, Dario; Deshmukh, Nikhil et al. (2012) Mapping a complete neural population in the retina. J Neurosci 32:14859-73
Vasquez, J C; Marre, O; Palacios, A G et al. (2012) Gibbs distribution analysis of temporal correlations structure in retina ganglion cells. J Physiol Paris 106:120-7

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