Abstract
The machinery behind the visual perception of motion and the subsequent sensori-motor transformation, such as in ocular following response (OFR), is confronted to uncertainties which are efficiently resolved in the primate’s visual system. We may understand this response as an ideal observer in a probabilistic framework by using Bayesian theory [Weiss, Y., Simoncelli, E.P., Adelson, E.H., 2002. Motion illusions as optimal percepts. Nature Neuroscience, 5(6), 598-604, doi:10.1038/nn858] which we previously proved to be successfully adapted to model the OFR for different levels of noise with full field gratings. More recent experiments of OFR have used disk gratings and bipartite stimuli which are optimized to study the dynamics of center-surround integration. We quantified two main characteristics of the spatial integration of motion: (i) a finite optimal stimulus size for driving OFR, surrounded by an antagonistic modulation and (ii) a direction selective suppressive effect of the surround on the contrast gain control of the central stimuli [Barthélemy, F.V., Vanzetta, I., Masson, G.S., 2006. Behavioral receptive field for ocular following in humans: dynamics of spatial summation and center-surround interactions. Journal of Neurophysiology, (95), 3712-3726, doi:10.1152/jn.00112.2006]. Herein, we extended the ideal observer model to simulate the spatial integration of the different local motion cues within a probabilistic representation. We present analytical results which show that the hypothesis of independence of local measures can describe the spatial integration of the motion signal. Within this framework, we successfully accounted for the contrast gain control mechanisms observed in the behavioral data for center-surround stimuli. However, another inhibitory mechanism had to be added to account for suppressive effects of the surround.
Dynamical Neural Networks (DyNNs) are a class of models for networks of neurons where particular focus is put on the role of time in the emergence of functional computational properties. The definition and study of these models involves the cooperation of a large range of scientific fields from statistical physics, probabilistic modelling, neuroscience and psychology to control theory. It focuses on the mechanisms that may be relevant for studying cognition by hypothesizing that information is distributed in the activity of the neurons in the system and that the timing helps in maintaining this information to lastly form decisions or actions. The system responds at best to the constraints of the outside world and learning strategies tune this internal dynamics to achieve optimal performance. This chapter introduces the book. See also:
- (2007). Topics in Dynamical Neural Networks: From Large Scale Neural Networks to Motor Control and Vision. Topics in Dynamical Neural Networks: From Large Scale Neural Networks to Motor Control and Vision.
- (2007). Introduction to Topics in Dynamical Neural Networks: From Large Scale Neural Networks to Motor Control and Vision. Topics in Dynamical Neural Networks: From Large Scale Neural Networks to Motor Control and Vision.
Laurent U Perrinet
Researcher in Computational Neuroscience
My research interests include Machine Learning and computational neuroscience applied to Vision.