MODELING THE PHYSIOLOGICAL-RESPONSES OF ANURAN R3 GANGLION-CELLS

Teeters and Arbib (Bio Cybernet 1991;64:197-207) presented a model of the anuran retina which qualitatively accounts for some of the charact eristic response properties used to distinguish ganglion cell type in anurans. Teeters et al. (Vis Res 1993;33:2361-2379) tested the model's ability to reproduce data of Ewert and Hock (Exp Brain Res 1972;16:41 -59) relating toad R2, R3 and R4 ganglion cell responses to moving wor m, antiworm and square-shaped stimuli of various edge lengths for stim ulus shape and size dependency. In this paper we provide an exhaustive analysis of the performance of the modeled R3 cells with respect to m ost of the known qualitative and quantitative physiological properties of natural R3 ganglion cells. We also introduce several relevant pred ictions of the model relating different responses of R3 cells under th e effect of changes in different model components. In some cases the p redictions have been tested in neurophysiological experiments. (C) 199 8 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.