Applications of minimum-order Wiener modeling to retinal ganglion cell spatiotemporal dynamics

Abstract

In a previous paper (Marmarelis et al., 1986) we presented the concept of minimum-order Wiener (MOW) modeling of continuous-input/spike-output (CISO) systems. The associated MOW methodology aims at obtaining low-order Wiener models for CISO systems of practical interest. The assertion was made that many neurophysiological systems that fall in this class can be studied effectively by the use of this method. We have chosen a sensory system to demonstrate the efficacy of the method with actual experimental data. The response of retinal ganglion cells to spatiotemporal visual stimuli was studied with this approach and a second-order MOW model was obtained. The results appear to corroborate the adequacy of this model in terms of predicting the timing of the output spikes.