# Do retinal ganglion cells project natural scenes to their principal subspace and whiten them?

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1612.03483 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1612.03483/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 11 Dec 2016.

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Constrained Parameter Inference as a Principle for Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.13203/) (2022)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Several theories of early sensory processing suggest that it whitens sensory stimuli. Here, we test three key predictions of the whitening theory using recordings from 152 ganglion cells in salamander retina responding to natural movies. We confirm the previous finding that firing rates of ganglion cells are less correlated compared to natural scenes, although significant correlations remain. We show that while the power spectrum of ganglion cells decays less steeply than that of natural scenes, it is not completely flattened. Finally, we find evidence that only the top principal components of the visual stimulus are transmitted.