Cortical dynamics of lateral inhibition: visual persistence and ISI

Psychophysical studies show that increasing the interstimulus interval (ISI) between two stimuli decreases persistence of the first stimulus. While some researchers account for these results with interactions of transient and sustained inhibition, this paper describes an alternative explanation. In a neural-network model of boundary detection called the boundary contour system, persistence is the result of feedback-generated reverberations. Mechanisms to control these reverberations include lateral inhibition, which computer simulations show allows persistence in the network to qualitatively match the psychophysical data. Additional simulations predict that increasing the duration of the second stimulus should cause persistence to increase with ISI. The model links psychophysical data on visual persistence with computational requirements of spatial vision and properties of cells in visual cortex.