Question

The receptive field inform us what sensory information is transmitted in what is discarded. What is meant by this statement?

Answer 1

The receptive field of an individual sensory neuron is the particular region of the sensory space (e.g., the body surface, or the visual field) in which a stimulus will modify the firing of that neuron. This region can be a hair in the cochlea or a piece of skin, retina, tongue or other part of an animal's body.  Receptive fields have been identified for neurons of the auditory system, the somatosensory system, and the visual system.

The concept of receptive fields can be extended further up the nervous system; if many sensory receptors all form synapses with a single cell further up, they collectively form the receptive field of that cell. For example, the receptive field of a ganglion cell in the retina of the eye is composed of input from all of the photoreceptors which synapse with it, and a group of ganglion cells in turn forms the receptive field for a cell in the brain.