Relative refractoriness in visual information processing

Abstract

Pulse-interval distributions are obtained for a counting system in which there is a gradual, rather than abrupt, increase in excitability following the registration of a pulse (relative refractoriness). The results are applicable to systems in which Poisson counting would be observed in the absence of such effects, and in which the memory reaches back at most one pulse. Choosing a particular functional form for the recovery function, the theory fits the experimentally measured distribution for the maintained discharge in the cat's retinal ganglion cell. It is also consistent with the notion that Weber's Law emerges from refractoriness in the visual system, as first proposed by van der Velden.