Probling mechanistic models for the retinogeniculate circuit in cat using drifting gratings

摘要

Experiments with drifting gratings are widespread in the study of neurons in th eretina and dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (dLGN). As an alternative to descriptive modeling based on the difference-of-Gaussians model, we show how mechanistic models for the retinogeniculate circuitry can be tested against drifting-grating data. As an example of this approach we (I) derive mehanistic expressions for th geniculate contrast gain for X-type relay cells in dLGN for a set of models with direct feedforward excitation and feedforward inhibition via intrageniculate interneurons, and (ii) compare the expressions with example data from the literature.