Abstract
It was postulated on the basis of results obtained by investigating retinal receptive fields of cats that experimental data reflecting the pattern of sensitivity of the receptive field coincide with certain orthogonal polynomials. These special functions have certain properties which can be regarded as spatial characteristics of the receptive fields whose differential sensitivity they describe. Within the framework of the suggested hypothesis visual analysis in the retina from the mathematical point of view can be regarded as a process of expansion of the curve of spatial distribution of brightness within the receptive fields in an orthogonal series. Physiologically speaking the retinal receptive fields can be interpreted as filters distinguishing an elementary orthogonal harmonic from the signal. This method of analysis results in maximal economy of the coding of visual information in the retina. The concepts put forward provide a fresh explanation of a number of physiological facts and they provide precise quantitative evaluations of the response of the receptive field to an arbitrary stimulus.
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