Can the brain's visual wiring be explained by the same engineering principles that optimize telephone networks? Dmitri Chklovskii shows how predictive coding theory and lattice filters map onto real neural circuits, from fly photoreceptors to the mammalian LGN.

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Chklovskii bridges theoretical physics and neuroscience by applying adaptive signal processing frameworks to sensory systems. Building on Barlow's redundancy reduction principle and the predictive coding work of Srinivasan, Laughlin, and Dubs, his group derives normative predictions for neural filter shapes with no free parameters: once you specify the natural stimulus statistics and signal-to-noise ratio, the optimal filter is uniquely determined. The biphasic temporal response and center-surround spatial r ...