Northcutt Brandon D, Dyhr Jonathan P, Higgins Charles M
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Arizona, 1230 E. Speedway Blvd., Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA.
Department of Biology, Northwest University, 5520 108th Ave. N.E., Kirkland, WA, 98033, USA.
Biol Cybern. 2017 Apr;111(2):185-206. doi: 10.1007/s00422-017-0715-0. Epub 2017 Mar 16.
Visual binding is the process of associating the responses of visual interneurons in different visual submodalities all of which are responding to the same object in the visual field. Recently identified neuropils in the insect brain termed optic glomeruli reside just downstream of the optic lobes and have an internal organization that could support visual binding. Working from anatomical similarities between optic and olfactory glomeruli, we have developed a model of visual binding based on common temporal fluctuations among signals of independent visual submodalities. Here we describe and demonstrate a neural network model capable both of refining selectivity of visual information in a given visual submodality, and of associating visual signals produced by different objects in the visual field by developing inhibitory neural synaptic weights representing the visual scene. We also show that this model is consistent with initial physiological data from optic glomeruli. Further, we discuss how this neural network model may be implemented in optic glomeruli at a neuronal level.
