Stereo images are highly redundant; the left and right frames of typical scenes are very similar. We explore the consequences of the hypothesis that cortical cells --- in addition to their multiscale coding strategies (Li and Atick 1994a) --- are concerned with reducing binocular redundancy due to correlations between the two eyes. We derive the most efficient coding strategies that achieve binocular decorrelation. It is shown that multiscale coding combined with a binocular decorrelation strategy leads to a rich diversity of cell types. In particular, the theory predicts monocular/binocular cells as well as a family of disparity selective cells, among which one can identify cells that are tuned-zero-excitatory, near, far, and tuned inhibitory. The theory also predicts correlations between ocular dominance, cell size, orientation, and disparity selectivities. Consequences on cortical ocular dominance column formation from abnormal developmental conditions such as strabismus and monocular eye closure are also predicted. These findings are compared with physiological measurements and suggest experimental tests of the theory.
Published in Network, computation in neural systems Vol.5 157-174. (1994)