Abstract
Orientation selectivity is a remarkable feature of the neurons located in the primary visual cortex. Provided that the visual neurons acquire orientation selectivity through activity-dependent Hebbian learning, the development process could be understood as a kind of symmetry-breaking phenomenon in the view of physics. This paper examines the key mechanisms of the orientation selectivity development process. Be found that at least two different mechanisms, which lead to the development of orientation selectivity by breaking the radial symmetry in receptive fields. The first is a simultaneous symmetry-breaking mechanism occurring based on the competition between neighboring neurons, and the second is a spontaneous one occurring based on the nonlinearity in interactions. Only the second mechanism leads to the formation of a columnar pattern whose characteristics is in accord with those observed in an animal experiment.
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Cho, M.W., Chun, M.Y. Two symmetry-breaking mechanisms for the development of orientation selectivity in a neural system. Journal of the Korean Physical Society 67, 1661–1666 (2015). https://doi.org/10.3938/jkps.67.1661
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3938/jkps.67.1661