A model system for syncytial integration is the outer vertebrate retina, where graded signals or electrotonic potentials interact laterally via gap junctions to form an integrated response that is relayed by chemical synapses to the next layer of interconnected cells. Morphological and physiological experiments confirm that bipolar cells form quasisyncytial lattices, and so this review will aim to address two important issues the function of coupling in visual information processing and the construction of a robust mathematical model that can adequately simulate signal spread in the bipolar cell syncytium. It is shown that the role of coupling in bipolar cells differs from that associated in the presynaptic networks, namely, loss in spatial resolution in order to increase the signal-to-noise ratio. The intrinsic membrane properties of bipolar cells which give rise to voltage-dependent currents are inactive over the normal in vivo operating range of membrane potential and may be shunted as a direct result of electrotonic coupling, suppressing any possibility of action potential propagation in the bipolar cell syncytium. It is therefore speculated that the mechanisms underlying processing of information in bipolar networks are dependent on the structure of bipolar cells and in particular, on the presence of gap junctions. It is proposed that a three-dimensional model which incorporates the spatial properties of each bipolar cell in the network in the form of a leaky cable is the most likely model to simulate signal spread in the bipolar cell syncytium in vivo. This is because discrete network models represent each bipolar cell in the syncytium as isopotential units without any spatial structure, and thus are unable to reproduce the temporal characteristics of electrotonic potential spread within the central receptive field of bipolar cells. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.