Cerebral Cortex, Vol 8, 553-561, Copyright © 1998 by Oxford University Press
ED Lumer
In normal vision, the inputs from the two eyes are integrated into a single
percept. When dissimilar images are presented to the two eyes, however,
they compete for perceptual dominance, so that one eye's view suppresses
that of the other. Recent evidence suggests that this phenomenon, known as
binocular rivalry, arises through competition between alternative stimulus
interpretations in extrastriate cortex. Because eye-specific information
appears to be lost at this stage, it remains unclear how the stimulus
conditions that yield binocular rivalry are distinguished from those that
produce stable single vision. Using a neural network that models the
mammalian early visual system, I investigate here the hypothesis that
congruent and conflicting stimuli are distinguished by their different
effects on the relative timing of action potentials in primary visual
cortex (V1), where monocular inputs are first combined. In the model,
congruent stimulation of both eyes results in synchronization of discharges
among binocular neurons in V1. By contrast, conflicting stimulation of the
two eyes results in neuronal asynchrony in this area. This asynchrony then
produces rivalrous response suppression at later stages in the visual
pathway. Synchronization of firing in V1, however, prevents such
competition, thereby ensuring non-rivalrous responses. These novel effects
of spike timing on competition emerge naturally from the network dynamics.
The results suggest that input-related differences in relative spike timing
at an early stage of visual processing may play an important part in the
phenomena both of binocular integration and rivalry; furthermore, they
indicate that the temporal patterning of cortical activity may be a
fundamental mechanism of selection among competing stimulus
representations.
A neural model of binocular integration and rivalry based on the coordination of action-potential timing in primary visual cortex
Wellcome Department of Cognitive Neurology, Institute of Neurology, University College London, UK. elumer@fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk
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