Natural image statistics and neural representation

It has long been assumed that sensory neurons are adapted, through both evo lutionary and developmental processes, to the statistical properties of the signals to which they are exposed. Attneave (1954) and Barlow (1961) propo sed that information theory could provide a link between environmental stat istics and neural responses through the concept of coding efficiency. Recen t developments in statistical modeling, along with powerful computational t ools, have enabled researchers to study more sophisticated statistical mode ls for visual images, to validate these models empirically against large se ts of data, and to begin experimentally testing the efficient coding hypoth esis for both individual neurons and populations of neurons.