Normalization of cell responses in cat striate cortex

TLDR

Striate cortex simple cells are modeled as half‑wave‑rectified linear operators and complex cells as energy mechanisms from quadrature pairs, yet this linear/energy framework fails to fully explain their responses. The study proposes a modified linear/energy model in which striate cells mutually inhibit each other to normalize responses to stimulus contrast. The model incorporates mutual inhibition among striate cells to normalize their responses to contrast. The modified model accounts for a substantially larger set of physiological data than the traditional linear/energy model.

Abstract

Abstract Simple cells in the striate cortex have been depicted as half-wave-rectified linear operators. Complex cells have been depicted as energy mechanisms, constructed from the squared sum of the outputs of quadrature pairs of linear operators. However, the linear/energy model falls short of a complete explanation of striate cell responses. In this paper, a modified version of the linear/energy model is presented in which striate cells mutually inhibit one another, effectively normalizing their responses with respect to stimulus contrast. This paper reviews experimental measurements of striate cell responses, and shows that the new model explains a significantly larger body of physiological data.