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The amount of information transmitted about contrast by neurones in the cat's visual cortex

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 June 2009

D. J. Tolhurst
D. J. Tolhurst
Affiliation:
The Physiological Laboratory, Cambridge, England
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Abstract

The responses of neurones in the cat's visual cortex are very variable in amplitude. Thus, although the average response amplitude of a single neurone depends closely upon the contrast of a sinusoidal grating, the instantaneous amplitude of the response can convey little information about the grating's contrast. This paper shows that a typical cortical neurone can convey less than one bit of information about contrast in 0.5 s. The amount of information that a neurone can convey is closely correlated with the neurone's responsivity.

Keywords

Visual cortexNoiseInformation
Type
Research Article
Information
Visual Neuroscience , Volume 2 , Issue 4 , April 1989 , pp. 409 - 413
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

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