Dynamics of Population Synchrony of Retinal Ganglion Cells During Response to Contrast Stimulus

Abstract—The contrast adaptation characterized by retinal ganglion cells when exposed to high density contrast patterns are of important psychophysical significance in visual system. The synchronous discharges exhibit an important way of coding mechanism for information transmission. Our recent study recorded discharges simultaneously from a group of neighbor neurons under contrast stimulus and analyzed the dynamics of population synchrony by employing a measurement of discrepancy, which is based on information theory. The results showed that the population of retinal ganglion cells evolved dynamical synchrony during response to the contrast stimulus. This evolutionary synchrony may contribute to revealing that the coding mechanism was probably embedded in the precise temporal alignment of neuron population. Keywords-dynamics; population; synchrony; retinal ganglion cell; contrast I