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Negatively correlated firing: the functional meaning of lateral inhibition within cortical columns

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Abstract

Lateral inhibition is a well documented aspect of neural architecture in the main sensory systems. Existing accounts of lateral inhibition focus on its role in sharpening distinctions between inputs that are closely related. However, these accounts fail to explain the functional role of inhibition in cortical columns, such as those in V1, where neurons have similar response properties. In this paper, we outline a model of position tracking using cortical columns of integrate-and-fire and Hodgkin-Huxley-type neurons which respond optimally to a particular location, to show that negatively correlated firing patterns arise from lateral inhibition in cortical columns and that this provides a clear benefit for population coding in terms of stability, accuracy, estimation time and neural resources.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Informatics, Sussex University, Brighton, BN1 9QH, UK

    Simon Durrant

  2. Department of Mathematics, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, People’s Republic of China

    Jianfeng Feng

  3. Department of Computer Science and Mathematics, Warwick University, Coventry, CV4 7AL, UK

    Jianfeng Feng

Authors
  1. Simon Durrant
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  2. Jianfeng Feng
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Correspondence to Jianfeng Feng.

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Durrant, S., Feng, J. Negatively correlated firing: the functional meaning of lateral inhibition within cortical columns. Biol Cybern 95, 431–453 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00422-006-0096-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00422-006-0096-2

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