The construction of a simultaneous functional order in nervous systems. III. The influence of environmental constraints on the resulting functional order.

In a previous paper (Part I) we introduced a model that constructs a simultaneous functional order in a set of neuronal elements by monitoring the coincidences in their signal activities (the so-called coincidence-model). The simultaneous signal activity in a neural net will be constrained both by its physical restrictions and by environmental constraints. In this paper we present the results of simulation experiments that were performed to study the influence of environmental constraints on the resulting functional order in a set of neural elements corresponding to a one-dimensional detector array. We show that the coincidence-model produces a functional order that encodes the physical constraints of the environment. Moreover, we demonstrate that the signal activity in the neural net (the "perceptions") can be related to events in the outer world. We provide some examples to demonstrate that our model may prove useful to gain insight into certain developmental disorders.