The Standard Model of the Retina

Abstract

The scientific study of the retina has reached a remarkable state of completion. We can now explain many aspects of early visual processing based on a relatively simple model of neural circuitry in the retina. The same model, with different parameters, produces a great diversity of neural computations. In this article I lay out what that "standard model" is and how it accounts for such a diversity of phenomena. The emergence of such a powerful standard model is unique in systems neuroscience, and I consider what conditions made it possible. The standard model now serves as a baseline from which to organize future retinal research, either by testing the model's assumptions directly, or by identifying phenomena that remain unexplained.