Fig. 5: Robustness of image representation against cell drop.

a Representative reconstructed images after dropping a single cell. Top panels: stimulus and reconstructed image obtained from all responsive neurons (55 cells). Middle panels: reconstructed images obtained after dropping a single cell. Bottom panels: representation patterns (reverse filters) of the dropped cells. The cell number (cell #) is the same as shown in Fig. 4f. b Reduction in reconstruction performance after removing a single cell. The cell #s on the x-axis are ordered from largest to smallest response amplitudes. The cell #s are in the same order as shown in Fig. 4d, e. Thick line: median. Thin lines: 25th and 75th percentiles; N = 24 planes. c Top panels: reverse filters of overlapping cells (nine example cells). The representation area of each neuron is contoured by the red line and overlaid on the right panel. Middle panel: reconstructed image obtained from the nine overlapping cells. Bottom panels: reconstructed images obtained from single cells (upper panels) and reconstructed images after dropping a single cell (lower panels). Dropping a single cell exerted only a small effect on the reconstructed images. d Representative reconstructed images obtained during the sequential dropping of the nine overlapping neurons. Cyan dotted lines indicate the overlapping area of the nine cells. The quality of the reconstructed image around the overlapping areas gradually degrades after each cell is dropped. e, f Plot of the R (or normalized R) for a local part of the reconstructed image (overlapping area) against the number (or percentage) of dropped cells for the representative case shown in c, e and for the summary of all data f. Data were collected and averaged across cells and across stimuli in each plane and then collected across planes. Thick lines: medians. Thin lines: 25th and 75th percentiles obtained across repetitions of random drops (n = 120 repetitions, e) or across planes (n = 24 planes, f). The stimulus images in a and d are adapted from the database in ref. ⁵⁶ with permission. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.