Receptive Field Map Development by Anti-Hebbian Learning.

Abstract

Neurons selective to oriented visual stimuli participate in the early steps of visual signal processes in higher mammals. A highly ordered neural connectivity responds to such a selectivity. The information necessary to establish this connectivity is too large to be contained in a genome. Moreover, neurophysiological experiments show that the alteration of small parts of the developing visual neural system affects the normal development of the whole system. Self-organizing processes able to produce local order from general properties have already been proposed as the driving force of these development stages. In order to model these self-organizing processes we study a two layer neural network based on simple organizational rules such as (1) diffusion of neural signal in the same layer, (2) Hebbian and anti-Hebbian learning, and (3) individual restrictions to the growth of each neuronal connection. We simulate the development of neurons selective to orientation and size organized in a map, underscoring the importance of anti-Hebbian learning for normal neural visual system development. Copyright 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.