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Estimating Receptive Fields from Responses to Natural Stimuli with Asymmetric Intensity Distributions

The reasons for using natural stimuli to study sensory function are quickly mounting, as recent studies have revealed important differences in neural responses to natural and artificial stimuli. However, natural stimuli typically contain strong correlations and are spherically asymmetric (i.e. stimu...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Lesica, Nicholas A., Ishii, Toshiyuki, Stanley, Garrett B., Hosoya, Toshihiko
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2008
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2518112/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18725977
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0003060
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author Lesica, Nicholas A.
Ishii, Toshiyuki
Stanley, Garrett B.
Hosoya, Toshihiko
author_facet Lesica, Nicholas A.
Ishii, Toshiyuki
Stanley, Garrett B.
Hosoya, Toshihiko
author_sort Lesica, Nicholas A.
collection PubMed
description The reasons for using natural stimuli to study sensory function are quickly mounting, as recent studies have revealed important differences in neural responses to natural and artificial stimuli. However, natural stimuli typically contain strong correlations and are spherically asymmetric (i.e. stimulus intensities are not symmetrically distributed around the mean), and these statistical complexities can bias receptive field (RF) estimates when standard techniques such as spike-triggered averaging or reverse correlation are used. While a number of approaches have been developed to explicitly correct the bias due to stimulus correlations, there is no complementary technique to correct the bias due to stimulus asymmetries. Here, we develop a method for RF estimation that corrects reverse correlation RF estimates for the spherical asymmetries present in natural stimuli. Using simulated neural responses, we demonstrate how stimulus asymmetries can bias reverse-correlation RF estimates (even for uncorrelated stimuli) and illustrate how this bias can be removed by explicit correction. We demonstrate the utility of the asymmetry correction method under experimental conditions by estimating RFs from the responses of retinal ganglion cells to natural stimuli and using these RFs to predict responses to novel stimuli.
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spelling pubmed-25181122008-08-26 Estimating Receptive Fields from Responses to Natural Stimuli with Asymmetric Intensity Distributions Lesica, Nicholas A. Ishii, Toshiyuki Stanley, Garrett B. Hosoya, Toshihiko PLoS One Research Article The reasons for using natural stimuli to study sensory function are quickly mounting, as recent studies have revealed important differences in neural responses to natural and artificial stimuli. However, natural stimuli typically contain strong correlations and are spherically asymmetric (i.e. stimulus intensities are not symmetrically distributed around the mean), and these statistical complexities can bias receptive field (RF) estimates when standard techniques such as spike-triggered averaging or reverse correlation are used. While a number of approaches have been developed to explicitly correct the bias due to stimulus correlations, there is no complementary technique to correct the bias due to stimulus asymmetries. Here, we develop a method for RF estimation that corrects reverse correlation RF estimates for the spherical asymmetries present in natural stimuli. Using simulated neural responses, we demonstrate how stimulus asymmetries can bias reverse-correlation RF estimates (even for uncorrelated stimuli) and illustrate how this bias can be removed by explicit correction. We demonstrate the utility of the asymmetry correction method under experimental conditions by estimating RFs from the responses of retinal ganglion cells to natural stimuli and using these RFs to predict responses to novel stimuli. Public Library of Science 2008-08-26 /pmc/articles/PMC2518112/ /pubmed/18725977 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0003060 Text en Lesica et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Lesica, Nicholas A.
Ishii, Toshiyuki
Stanley, Garrett B.
Hosoya, Toshihiko
Estimating Receptive Fields from Responses to Natural Stimuli with Asymmetric Intensity Distributions
title Estimating Receptive Fields from Responses to Natural Stimuli with Asymmetric Intensity Distributions
title_full Estimating Receptive Fields from Responses to Natural Stimuli with Asymmetric Intensity Distributions
title_fullStr Estimating Receptive Fields from Responses to Natural Stimuli with Asymmetric Intensity Distributions
title_full_unstemmed Estimating Receptive Fields from Responses to Natural Stimuli with Asymmetric Intensity Distributions
title_short Estimating Receptive Fields from Responses to Natural Stimuli with Asymmetric Intensity Distributions
title_sort estimating receptive fields from responses to natural stimuli with asymmetric intensity distributions
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2518112/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18725977
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0003060
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