Perspective
The receptive field is dead. Long live the receptive field?

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Advances in experimental techniques, including behavioral paradigms using rich stimuli under closed loop conditions and the interfacing of neural systems with external inputs and outputs, reveal complex dynamics in the neural code and require a revisiting of standard concepts of representation. High-throughput recording and imaging methods along with the ability to observe and control neuronal subpopulations allow increasingly detailed access to the neural circuitry that subserves neural representations and the computations they support. How do we harness theory to build biologically grounded models of complex neural function?

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Acknowledgments

We thank David Kleinfeld, Andre Longtin, Surya Ganguli, Dora Angelaki and the other attendees of the 2014 Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) workshop, as well as Blaise Agüera y Arcas and Alison Duffy for stimulating discussions. We thank CIFAR for the opportunity to meet. This work was funded by CRCNS NIH grant R01DC013693-01. The views expressed in this article are not necessarily those of the NIH.

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