Response vs excitation in response-dependent and stimulus-dependent lateral inhibitory networks.

Response-dependent and stimulus-dependent lateral inhibitory networks may be distinguished by differences in their net response vs net excitation functions. It is shown that the net response of a stable, response-dependent network is a monotonically increasing function of the net excitation. By contrast, the response of a stimulus-dependent lateral inhibitory network can either increase, decrease or remain constant as the net excitation of the network is increased, depending on the relation of the inhibition to the excitation. These differences make it possible to determine that the inhibition produced by a lateral inhibitory network is stimulus-dependent if the net response of the network declines as the network excitation increases.