A quantitative model relating visual neuronal activity to psychophysical thresholds

We investigate how a simple, physiologically motivated three-stage neuronal model can establish a quantitative relationship between activities in smal l populations of simulated early visual neurons and human psychophysical th resholds. The model consists of First, a bank of linear filters tuned for o rientation and spatial period; second, non-linear interactions between filt ers; and, third, a statistically efficient decision stage. The model quanti tatively reproduces human thresholds for five classical pattern discriminat ion tasks, using a unique set of automatically determined parameters. The r esulting model components are all plausible in terms of putative neuronal c orrelates. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.