Different Retinal Ganglion Cells Have Different Functional Goals.

Zhaoping Li

International Journal of Neural Systems, Vol. 3, No. 3, (1992), 237-248

 

Abstract: In mammalian retina, the Y (or M) ganglion cells are significantly more transient in response, more selective to stimuli of low spatial and high temporal frequencies and less selective to spectral information than the X (or P) cells. It is shown that these differences in cell properties can be explained by a model that assigned different functional goals to the different ganglion cell types. In this model, the goal of the Y cells is to extract as fast as possible the minimum amount of information necessary for quick responses. In contrast, the goal of the X cells is to extract as much information as possible. Temporal characteristics of the information extraction by the two cells groups are also derived.