Abstract
The visual message conveyed by a retinal ganglion cell (RGC) is often summarized by its spatial receptive field, but in principle should also depend on other cells’ responses and natural image statistics. To test this idea, linear reconstruction (decoding) of natural images was performed using combinations of responses of four high-density macaque RGC types, revealing consistent visual representations across retinas. Each cell’s visual message, defined by the optimal reconstruction filter, reflected natural image statistics, and resembled the receptive field only when nearby, same-type cells were included. Reconstruction from each cell type revealed different and largely independent visual representations, consistent with their distinct properties. Stimulus-independent correlations primarily affected reconstructions from noisy responses. Nonlinear response transformation slightly improved reconstructions with either ON or OFF parasol cells, but not both. Inclusion of ON-OFF interactions enhanced reconstruction by emphasizing oriented edges, consistent with linear-nonlinear encoding models. Spatiotemporal reconstructions revealed similar spatial visual messages.
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.
Footnotes
An additional reference was included and discussed in the Introduction and Discussion. A few typos, including an error in the isomerization rate in the Methods section, were corrected. No substantial changes were made to the Results.