Department of Ophthalmology, University Medical Center Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany; email:
Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany.
Annu Rev Vis Sci. 2022 Sep 15;8:171-193. doi: 10.1146/annurev-vision-100820-114239. Epub 2022 Jun 8.
An ultimate goal in retina science is to understand how the neural circuit of the retina processes natural visual scenes. Yet most studies in laboratories have long been performed with simple, artificial visual stimuli such as full-field illumination, spots of light, or gratings. The underlying assumption is that the features of the retina thus identified carry over to the more complex scenario of natural scenes. As the application of corresponding natural settings is becoming more commonplace in experimental investigations, this assumption is being put to the test and opportunities arise to discover processing features that are triggered by specific aspects of natural scenes. Here, we review how natural stimuli have been used to probe, refine, and complement knowledge accumulated under simplified stimuli, and we discuss challenges and opportunities along the way toward a comprehensive understanding of the encoding of natural scenes.
视网膜科学的终极目标是了解视网膜的神经回路如何处理自然视觉场景。然而，实验室中的大多数研究长期以来一直使用简单的人工视觉刺激，如全视野照明、光点或光栅。其基本假设是，通过这种方式识别出的视网膜特征可适用于更复杂的自然场景。随着相应自然环境在实验研究中的应用越来越普遍，这种假设正在受到检验，并且有机会发现由自然场景的特定方面触发的处理特征。在这里，我们回顾了自然刺激是如何被用来探测、改进和补充在简化刺激下积累的知识的，我们还讨论了在全面理解自然场景编码的过程中所面临的挑战和机遇。
