Swindale N V
Department of Ophthalmology, University of British Columbia, 2550 Willow Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada, V5Z 3N9.
Network. 1996 May;7(2):161-247. doi: 10.1088/0954-898X/7/2/002.
The repetitive stochastic patterns of eye dominance and orientation preference found in the mammalian visual cortex have attracted much attention from theoretical neurobiologists during the last two decades. Reasons for this include the visually intriguing nature of the patterns and the fact that many aspects of their development seem likely to be dependent upon both spontaneous and visually driven patterns of neural activity. Understanding these processes holds out the promise that general theories of learning and memory may be derived from those found to be applicable to the visual cortex. It has turned out, in fact, that remarkably simple models, based on Hebbian synaptic plasticity, intracortical interactions and competitive interactions between cells and growing axons, have been able to explain much of the phenomenology. This article reviews the models of topographic organization in the visual cortex in a roughly historical sequence, beginning with von der Malsburg's paper 1973 paper in Kybernetik on self-organization of orientation selectivity. The principles on which each of the models is based are explained, and the plausibility of each model and the extent to which it is able to account for the relevant experimental data are evaluated. Attention is drawn to the underlying similarities and differences between the models and suggestions are made for future directions in research.
在过去二十年里，哺乳动物视觉皮层中发现的眼优势和方向偏好的重复性随机模式引起了理论神经生物学家的广泛关注。原因包括这些模式在视觉上的趣味性，以及它们发育的许多方面似乎可能依赖于神经活动的自发模式和视觉驱动模式这一事实。理解这些过程有望从适用于视觉皮层的理论中推导出学习和记忆的一般理论。事实上，基于赫布突触可塑性、皮层内相互作用以及细胞与生长轴突之间的竞争相互作用的非常简单的模型，已经能够解释许多现象学。本文大致按照历史顺序回顾了视觉皮层中地形组织的模型，从冯·德·马尔堡1973年发表在《控制论》上关于方向选择性自组织的论文开始。解释了每个模型所基于的原理，并评估了每个模型的合理性及其能够解释相关实验数据的程度。文中提请注意各模型之间潜在的异同，并对未来的研究方向提出了建议。
