Modelling and Analysis of Retinal Ganglion Cells Through System Identification

Modelling biological systems is difficult due to insufficient knowledge about the internal components and organisation, and the complexity of the interactions within the system. At cellular level existing computational models of visual neurons can be derived by quantitatively fitting particular sets of physiological data using an input-output analysis where a known input is given to the system and its output is recorded. These models need to capture the full spatio-temporal description of neuron behaviour under natural viewing conditions. At a computational level we aspire to take advantage of state-of-the-art techniques to accurately model non-standard types of retinal ganglion cells. Using system identification techniques to express the biological input-output coupling mathematically, and computational modelling techniques to model highly complex neuronal structures, we will "identify" ganglion cell behaviour with visual scenes, and represent the mapping between perception and response automatically.