Fig 1. Illustration of our hybrid model combining SI and EC.

a. Illustration of two common approaches to studying visual systems: system identification, symbolized by the green-labeled branch, aims at predicting responses of neuronal circuits (black rectangle) to specific stimuli, whereas efficient coding (purple-labeled branch) seeks working out principles of the visual system based on environmental statistics. As these two approaches are rarely combined in a single modeling framework, their potential synergies remain largely unexplored. b. Our hybrid modeling approach combines system identification (green) and efficient coding (purple) in a single model with shared filters (red circle) to predict neural responses to arbitrary visual stimuli.