A neural network model for selective attention in visual pattern recognition.

A neural network model of the mechanism of selective attention in visual pattern recognition is proposed and simulated on a digital computer. When a complex figure consisting of two patterns or more is presented to the model, it is segmented into individual patterns, and each pattern is recognized separately. Even if one of the patterns to which the model is paying selective attention is affected by noise or defects, the model can recall the complete pattern from which the noise has been eliminated and the defects corrected. It is not necessary for perfect recall that the stimulus pattern should be identical in shape to the training pattern. Even though the pattern is distorted in shape or changed in size, it can be correctly recognized and the missing portions restored. The model consists of a hierarchical neural network which has efferent as well as afferent connections between cells. The afferent and the efferent signals interact with each other in the network: the efferent signals, that is, the signals for selective attention, have a facilitating effect on the afferent ones, and, at the same time, the afferent signals gate efferent signal flow. When some feature in the stimulus is not extracted in the afferent paths, the threshold for detection of that feature is automatically lowered by decreasing the efficiency of inhibition, and the model tries to extract even vague traces of the undetected feature.