Cross-correlation analysis of the maintained discharge of rabbit retinal ganglion cells

1. Simultaneous recordings were made from pairs of rabbit retinal ganglion cells. Physiological tests were used to classify the receptive field properties of each cell and the receptive field locations were mapped. 2. The statistical dependence between simultaneously recorded retinal ganglion cells was assessed by cross-correlating the maintained discharge of the simultaneously recorded cells. Cross-correlations from cell pairs in which the constituent cells had non-overlapping receptive field centres were statistically flat, reflecting no statistical dependence. 3. Most cell pairs consisting of transient and sustained concentric cells and having overlapping receptive field centres exhibited a correlated maintained discharge indicative of statistical dependence. The strength of the statistical dependence varied approximately inversely with the degree of overlap between the two cells comprising the cell pair. 4. Cell pairs consisting of two ON-centre cells or two OFF-centre cells and having overlapping receptive field centres possessed incremental cross-correlations which were characterized by a peak centred near zero. Cell pairs consisting of an ON-centre cell with an OFF-centre and having overlapping receptive field centres possessed decremental cross-correlations which were characterized by a valley centred near zero. 5. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that a noise source provides shared input to two or more retinal ganglion cells. Bipolar and photoreceptors are the most likely sources of noise responsible for the statistical dependency between retinal ganglion cells.