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Winner-take-all selection in a neural system with delayed feedback
Sebastian F Brandt1, Ralf Wessel
1Department of Physics, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63130-4899, USA. sbrandt@physics.wustl.edu
Abstract:
We consider the effects of temporal delay in a neural feedback system with excitation and inhibition. The topology of our model system reflects the anatomy of the avian isthmic circuitry, a feedback structure found in all classes of vertebrates. We show that the system is capable of performing a 'winner-take-all' selection rule for certain combinations of excitatory and inhibitory feedback. In particular, we show that when the time delays are sufficiently large a system with local inhibition and global excitation can function as a 'winner-take-all' network and exhibit oscillatory dynamics. We demonstrate how the origin of the oscillations can be attributed to the finite delays through a linear stability analysis.
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