Visually responding neurons in the superficial, retinorecipient layers of the cat superior colliculus receive input from two primarily
parallel information processing channels, Y and W, which is reflected in their velocity response profiles. We quantified the timedependent
variability of responses of these neurons to stimuli moving with different velocities by Fano factor (FF) calculated in discrete
time windows. The FF for cells responding to low-velocity stimuli, thus receivingWinputs, increased ...
Visually responding neurons in the superficial, retinorecipient layers of the cat superior colliculus receive input from two primarily
parallel information processing channels, Y and W, which is reflected in their velocity response profiles. We quantified the timedependent
variability of responses of these neurons to stimuli moving with different velocities by Fano factor (FF) calculated in discrete
time windows. The FF for cells responding to low-velocity stimuli, thus receivingWinputs, increased with the increase in the firing rate.
In contrast, the dynamics of activity of the cells responding to fast moving stimuli, processed by Y pathway, correlated negatively
with FF whether the response was excitatory or suppressive. These observations were tested against several types of surrogate data.
Whereas Poisson description failed to reproduce the variability of all collicular responses, the inclusion of secondary structure to
the generating point process recovered most of the observed features of responses to fast moving stimuli. Neither model could
reproduce the variability of low-velocity responses, which suggests that, in this case, more complex time dependencies need to be
taken into account. Our results indicate that Y and W channels may differ in reliability of responses to visual stimulation. Apart
from previously reported morphological and physiological differences of the cells belonging to Y and W channels, this is a new
feature distinguishing these two pathways.
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