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Parallel Processing in the Visual System

The Classification of Retinal Ganglion Cells and its Impact on the Neurobiology of Vision

  • Book
  • © 1983

Overview

Authors:
  1. Jonathan Stone

    1. School of Anatomy, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

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Part of the book series: Perspectives in Vision Research (PIVR)

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Table of contents (12 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xvi
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  2. The Classification of Retinal Ganglion Cells

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
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    2. From the Beginning

      • Jonathan Stone
      Pages 3-31

    3. The Y/X/W Classification of Cat Retinal Ganglion Cells

      • Jonathan Stone
      Pages 33-81

    4. Ganglion Cell Classification in Other Species

      • Jonathan Stone
      Pages 83-119

  3. On the Methodology of Classification

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 121-121
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    2. Toward Certainty, Objectivity, or Testability?

      • Jonathan Stone
      Pages 123-134

    3. Epistemological Background

      • Jonathan Stone
      Pages 135-145

  4. The Impact of Ganglion Cell Classification

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 147-147
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    2. On the Understanding of Visual Processing in the Diencephalon

      • Jonathan Stone
      Pages 149-193

    3. On the Understanding of the Visual Centers of the Midbrain

      • Jonathan Stone
      Pages 195-216

    4. On the Understanding of Visual Cortex

      • Jonathan Stone
      Pages 217-263

    5. On the Understanding of Retinal Topography

      • Jonathan Stone
      Pages 265-323

    6. On the Understanding of the Visual Pathways’ Dependence on the Visual Environment

      • Jonathan Stone
      Pages 325-351

    7. On the Understanding of Visual Psychophysics and Behavior

      • Jonathan Stone
      Pages 353-373

    8. Extensions and Limits of the Parallel Processing Analysis

      • Jonathan Stone
      Pages 375-397

  5. Back Matter

    Pages 399-438
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Keywords

About this book

In the mid-sixties, John Robson and Christina Enroth-Cugell, without realizing what they were doing, set off a virtual revolution in the study of the visual system. They were trying to apply the methods of linear systems analysis (which were already being used to describe the optics of the eye and the psychophysical performance of the human visual system) to the properties of retinal ganglion cells in the cat. Their idea was to stimulate the retina with patterns of stripes and to look at the way that the signals from the center and the antagonistic surround of the respective field of each ganglion cell (first described by Stephen Kuffier) interact to generate the cell's responses. Many of the ganglion cells behaved themselves very nicely and John and Christina got into the habit (they now say) of calling them I (interesting) cells. However. to their annoyance, the majority of neurons they recorded had nasty, nonlinear properties that couldn't be predicted on the basis of simple summ4tion of light within the center and the surround. These uncoop­ erative ganglion cells, which Enroth-Cugell and Robson at first called D (dull) cells, produced transient bursts of impulses every time the distribution of light falling on the receptive field was changed, even if the total light flux was unaltered.

Authors and Affiliations

  • School of Anatomy, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

    Jonathan Stone

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Parallel Processing in the Visual System

  • Book Subtitle: The Classification of Retinal Ganglion Cells and its Impact on the Neurobiology of Vision

  • Authors: Jonathan Stone

  • Series Title: Perspectives in Vision Research

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-4433-9

  • Publisher: Springer New York, NY

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

  • Copyright Information: Plenum Press, New York 1983

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-1-4684-4435-3Published: 17 March 2012

  • eBook ISBN: 978-1-4684-4433-9Published: 08 March 2013

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: 454

  • Topics: Animal Physiology, Biological and Medical Physics, Biophysics, Neurosciences

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