Variance predicts salience in central sensory processing
A. Hermundstad, J. Briguglio, M. Conte, J. Victor, V. Balasubramanian, G. Tkacik, ELife (2014).
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Journal Article
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Author
Hermundstad, Ann
;
Briguglio, John
;
Conte, Mary
;
Victor, Jonathan
;
Balasubramanian, Vijay
;
Tkacik, GasperIST Austria 

Department
Abstract
Information processing in the sensory periphery is shaped by natural stimulus statistics. In the periphery, a transmission bottleneck constrains performance; thus efficient coding implies that natural signal components with a predictably wider range should be compressed. In a different regime—when sampling limitations constrain performance—efficient coding implies that more resources should be allocated to informative features that are more variable. We propose that this regime is relevant for sensory cortex when it extracts complex features from limited numbers of sensory samples. To test this prediction, we use central visual processing as a model: we show that visual sensitivity for local multi-point spatial correlations, described by dozens of independently-measured parameters, can be quantitatively predicted from the structure of natural images. This suggests that efficient coding applies centrally, where it extends to higher-order sensory features and operates in a regime in which sensitivity increases with feature variability.
Publishing Year
Date Published
2014-11-14
Journal Title
eLife
Issue
November
Article Number
e03722
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Cite this
Hermundstad A, Briguglio J, Conte M, Victor J, Balasubramanian V, Tkacik G. Variance predicts salience in central sensory processing. eLife. 2014;(November). doi:10.7554/eLife.03722
Hermundstad, A., Briguglio, J., Conte, M., Victor, J., Balasubramanian, V., & Tkacik, G. (2014). Variance predicts salience in central sensory processing. ELife, (November). https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.03722
Hermundstad, Ann, John Briguglio, Mary Conte, Jonathan Victor, Vijay Balasubramanian, and Gasper Tkacik. “Variance Predicts Salience in Central Sensory Processing.” ELife, no. November (2014). https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.03722.
A. Hermundstad, J. Briguglio, M. Conte, J. Victor, V. Balasubramanian, and G. Tkacik, “Variance predicts salience in central sensory processing,” eLife, no. November, 2014.
Hermundstad A, Briguglio J, Conte M, Victor J, Balasubramanian V, Tkacik G. 2014. Variance predicts salience in central sensory processing. eLife. (November).
Hermundstad, Ann, et al. “Variance Predicts Salience in Central Sensory Processing.” ELife, no. November, e03722, eLife Sciences Publications, 2014, doi:10.7554/eLife.03722.
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