Modeling dynamic receptive field changes in primary visual cortex using inhibitory learning

Abstract

The position, size, and shape of the visual receptive field (RF) of some primary visual cortical neurons change dynamically, in response to artificial scotoma conditioning in cats (Pettet & Gilbert, 1992) and to retinal lesions in cats and monkeys (Darian-Smith & Gilbert, 1995). The "EXIN" learning rules (Marshall, 1995) are used to model dynamic RF changes. The EXIN model is compared with an adaptation model (Xing & Gerstein, 1994) and the LISSOM model (Sirosh & Miikkulainen, 1994; Sirosh et al., 1996). To emphasize the role of the lateral inhibitory learning rules, the EXIN and the LISSOM simulations were done with only lateral inhibitory learning. During scotoma conditioning, the EXIN model without feedforward learning produces centrifugal expansion of RFs initially inside the scotoma region, accompanied by increased responsiveness, without changes in spontaneous activation. The EXIN model without feedforward learning is more consistent with the neurophysiological data than are the adaptation model and the LISSOM model. The comparison between the EXIN and the LISSOM models suggests experiments to determine the role of feedforward excitatory and lateral inhibitory learning in producing dynamic RF changes during scotoma conditioning.