A lattice filter model of the visual pathway

Early stages of visual processing are thought to decorrelate, or whiten, the incoming temporally varying signals. Motivated by the cascade structure of the visual pathway (retina lateral geniculate nucelus (LGN) primary visual cortex, V1) we propose to model its function using lattice filters - signal processing devices for stage-wise decorrelation of temporal signals. Lattice filter models predict neuronal responses consistent with physiological recordings in cats and primates. In particular, they predict temporal receptive fields of two different types resembling so-called lagged and non-lagged cells in the LGN. Moreover, connection weights in the lattice filter can be learned using Hebbian rules in a stage-wise sequential manner reminiscent of the neuro-developmental sequence in mammals.