Cross‐correlation analysis of the maintained discharge of rabbit retinal ganglion cells.

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Abstract
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. 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 centers were statistically flat, reflecting no statistical dependence. Most cell pairs consisting of transient and sustained concentric cells and having overlapping receptive field centers 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. Cell pairs consisting of 2 ON-center cells or 2 OFF-center cells and having overlapping receptive field centers possessed incremental cross-correlations which were characterized by a peak centered near zero. Cell pairs consisting of an ON-center cell with an OFF-center cell and having overlapping receptive field centers possessed decremental cross-correlations characterized by a valley centered near zero. Results are consistent with the hypothesis that a noise source provides shared input to 2 or more retinal ganglion cells. Bipolar and photoreceptors are the most likely sources of noise responsible for the statistical dependency between retinal ganglion cells.