Retinal Ganglion Cell Population Receptive-Field Map

A retinal ganglion cell reads light through a center-surround receptive field — a small excitatory (or inhibitory) center antagonized by a larger surround of the opposite sign — modelled since Rodieck (1965) as a difference of Gaussians. This 2D simulator extends that single-cell model into a full population: because a Gaussian receptive-field lobe convolved with a Gaussian light stimulus is itself a Gaussian, every ganglion cell's response across the entire visual field can be computed in closed form and rendered live as a heatmap. Drag the light spot around and watch the population's response ripple: a spot near the surround's size lights up a bright ring exactly at its rim (edge enhancement), a spot much larger than the surround goes nearly silent (the classic "silent surround"), and one probe cell fixed at the center tracks its own firing rate and a spike raster the same way the 3D version's single cell does.