Learning cortical topography from spatiotemporal stimuli

Abstract

We model the stimulus-induced development of the topography of the primary visual cortex. The analysis uses a self-organizing Kohonen model based on high-dimensional coding. It allows us to obtain an arbitrary number of feature maps by defining different operators. Using natural binocular stimuli, we concentrate on discussing the orientation, ocular dominance, and disparity maps. We obtain orientation and ocular dominance maps that agree with essential aspects of biological findings. In contrast to orientation and ocular dominance, not much is known about the cortical representation of disparity. As a result of numerical simulations, we predict substructures of orientation and ocular dominance maps that correspond to disparity maps. In regions of constant orientation, we find a wide range of horizontal disparities to be represented. This points to geometrical relations between orientation, ocular dominance, and disparity maps that might be tested in experiments.

The generation of vibrotactile patterns on a linear array: Influences of body site, time, and presentation mode

“…Although it was not the intent of this paper to define a neural locus for these effects, it is of some interest to note that repetitive presentation of tactile spatiotemporal stimuli like those used here can lead to considerable changes in cortical spatial organization. These have been found in the primary somatosensory cortex (Wang, Merzenich, Sameshima, & Jenkins, 1995;Whitsel et aI., 1989;Wiemer, Spengler, Joublin, Stagge, & Wacquant, 1998, 2000 and in the secondary somatosensory cortex, an area receiving much interest in cognitive research (Maldjian et aI., 1999).…”

Using Spatiotemporal Correlations to Learn Topographic Maps for Invariant Object Recognition

“…We mimicked such viewing conditions by creating stimulus sequences with temporal correlations along only one dimension of the stimulus space. Many different models have been proposed for how these temporal correlations can be used for learning invariant representations of visual objects (Becker 1993;Einhäuser et al 2005;Földiák 1991;Rolls and Stringer 2006;Stringer and Rolls 2002;Wallis and Rolls 1997;Wiemer 2003;Wiemer et al 2000;Wiskott and Sejnowski 2002). Our study shows how a biologically plausible network of spiking neurons can make use of temporal correlations to achieve invariant representations.…”

“…An attempt to extend the von der Malsburg model to account for temporal correlations has been considered by Wiemer and colleagues (Wiemer 2003;Wiemer et al 2000). It is based on lateral propagation of activity, but has not been implemented in a biologically realistic network.…”

Dynamic Perceptual Maps - A Psychophysical Approach to Spatiotemporal Interactions and Plasticity in Body Perception

“…This demonstrates the dynamic, that is, spatiotemporal nature of the perceptual representation of the body surface. The view that saltation phenomena are perceptual correlates of the dynamic behavior of sensory maps in the brain [2] is supported by a recent neuroimaging study demonstrating that activation in the primary somatosensory cortex is related to the perceived 'illusionary' position of the saltatory stimulus rather than its anatomical position [3]. Thus, the spatiotemporal psychophysics of saltation and related phenomena may provide the adequate quantitative perceptual correlate of the dynamics of uni-and multisensory cerebral maps.…”