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Generation of Direction Selectivity by Isotropic Intracortical Connections

Wörgötter, Florentin and Niebur, Ernst and Koch, Christof (1992) Generation of Direction Selectivity by Isotropic Intracortical Connections. Neural Computation, 4 (3). pp. 332-340. ISSN 0899-7667. doi:10.1162/neco.1992.4.3.332. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:WORnc92

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Abstract

To what extent do the mechanisms generating different receptive field properties of neurons depend on each other? We investigated this question theoretically within the context of orientation and direction tuning of simple cells in the mammalian visual cortex. In our model a cortical cell of the "simple" type receives its orientation tuning by afferent convergence of aligned receptive fields of the lateral geniculate nucleus (Hubel and Wiesel 1962). We sharpen this orientation bias by postulating a special type of radially symmetric long-range lateral inhibition called circular inhibition. Surprisingly, this isotropic mechanism leads to the emergence of a strong bias for the direction of motion of a bar. We show that this directional anisotropy is neither caused by the probabilistic nature of the connections nor is it a consequence of the specific columnar structure chosen but that it is an inherent feature of the architecture of visual cortex.


Item Type:Article
Related URLs:
URLURL TypeDescription
http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/neco.1992.4.3.332DOIArticle
ORCID:
AuthorORCID
Koch, Christof0000-0001-6482-8067
Additional Information:© 1992 The MIT Press. Received 3 May 1991; accepted 7 November 1991. We thank Dr. J. Knierim for a critical reading of the manuscript. F.W. is supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, E.N. by the Swiss National Science Foundation, Grant 8220-2594. C.K. acknowledges the support of the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, a NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award, and the James S. McDonnell Foundation.
Group:Koch Laboratory (KLAB)
Funders:
Funding AgencyGrant Number
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)UNSPECIFIED
Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)8220-25941
Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR)UNSPECIFIED
NSFUNSPECIFIED
James S. McDonnell FoundationUNSPECIFIED
Issue or Number:3
DOI:10.1162/neco.1992.4.3.332
Record Number:CaltechAUTHORS:WORnc92
Persistent URL:https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:WORnc92
Usage Policy:No commercial reproduction, distribution, display or performance rights in this work are provided.
ID Code:12202
Collection:CaltechAUTHORS
Deposited By: Archive Administrator
Deposited On:29 Oct 2008 02:55
Last Modified:26 Apr 2023 16:38

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