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Updated: Oct 25, 2026

Computational Modeling of Retinal Neurons for Visual Prosthesis Research - Fundamental Approaches
Published on: June 21, 2022
Computing with self-excitatory cliques: A model and an application to hyperacuity-scale computation in visual cortex
1Center for Computational Vision and Control, Department of Computer Science, Yale University, PO Box 208285, 51 Prospect Street, New Haven, CT 06520, USA.
Abstract:
We present a model of visual computation based on tightly inter-connected cliques of pyramidal cells. It leads to a formal theory of cell assemblies, a specific relationship between correlated firing patterns and abstract functionality, and a direct calculation relating estimates of cortical cell counts to orientation hyperacuity. Our network architecture is unique in that (1) it supports a mode of computation that is both reliable and efficient; (2) the current-spike relations are modeled as an analog dynamical system in which the requisite computations can take place on the time scale required for an early stage of visual processing; and (3) the dynamics are triggered by the spatiotemporal response of cortical cells. This final point could explain why moving stimuli improve vernier sensitivity.
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