From Basic Network Principles to Neural Architecture: Emergence of Orientation-Selective Cells

This is the second paper in a series of three that explores the emergence of several prominent features of the functional architecture of visual cortex, in a ``modular self-adaptive network'' containing several layers of cells with parallel feedforward connections whose strengths develop according to a Hebb-type correlation-rewarding rule. In the present paper I show that orientation-selective cells, similar to the ``simple'' cortical cells of Hubel and Wiesel [Hubel, D. H. & Wiesel, T. N. (1962) J. Physiol. 160, 106-154], emerge in such a network. No orientation preference is specified to the system at any stage, the orientation-selective cell layer emerges even in the absence of environmental input to the system, and none of the basic developmental rules is specific to visual processing.