Technology
A four neuron circuit accounts for change sensitive inhibition in salamander retina
Teeters, Jeffrey L., Eeckman, Frank H., Werblin, Frank S.
In salamander retina, the response of On-Off ganglion cells to a central flash is reduced by movement in the receptive field surround. Through computer simulation of a 2-D model which takes into account their anatomical and physiological properties, we show that interactions between four neuron types (two bipolar and two amacrine) may be responsible for the generation and lateral conductance of this change sensitive inhibition. The model shows that the four neuron circuit can account for previously observed movement sensitive reductions in ganglion cell sensitivity and allows visualization and prediction of the spatiotemporal pattern of activity in change sensitive retinal cells.
A VLSI Neural Network for Color Constancy
Moore, Andrew W., Allman, John, Fox, Geoffrey, Goodman, Rodney
A system for color correction has been designed, built, and tested successfully; the essential components are three custom chips built using subthreshold analog CMOS VLSI. The system, based on Land's Retinex theory of color constancy, produces colors similar in many respects to those produced by the visual system. Resistive grids implemented in analog VLSI perform the smoothing operation central to the algorithm at video rates. With the electronic system, the strengths and weaknesses of the algorithm are explored.
Optimal Sampling of Natural Images: A Design Principle for the Visual System
Bialek, William, Ruderman, Daniel L., Zee, A.
We formulate the problem of optimizing the sampling of natural images using an array of linear filters. Optimization of information capacity is constrained by the noise levels of the individual channels and by a penalty for the construction of long-range interconnections in the array. At low signal-to-noise ratios the optimal filter characteristics correspond to bound states of a Schrodinger equation in which the signal spectrum plays the role of the potential. The resulting optimal filters are remarkably similar to those observed in the mammalian visual cortex and the retinal ganglion cells of lower vertebrates. The observed scale invariance of natural images plays an essential role in this construction.
Qualitative structure from motion
I have presented a qualitative approach to the problem of recovering object structure from motion information and discussed some of its computational, psychophysical and implementational aspects. The computation of qualitative shape, as represented by the sign of the Gaussian curvature, can be performed by a field of simple operators, in parallel over the entire image. The performance of a qualitative shape detection module, implemented by an artificial neural network, appears to be similar to the performance of human subjects in an identical task.
A Multiscale Adaptive Network Model of Motion Computation in Primates
Wang, H. Taichi, Mathur, Bimal, Koch, Christof
We demonstrate a multiscale adaptive network model of motion computation in primate area MT. The model consists of two stages: (l) local velocities are measured across multiple spatiotemporal channels, and (2) the optical flow field is computed by a network of directionselective neurons at multiple spatial resolutions. This model embeds the computational efficiency of Multigrid algorithms within a parallel network as well as adaptively computes the most reliable estimate of the flow field across different spatial scales. Our model neurons show the same nonclassical receptive field properties as Allman's type I MT neurons. Since local velocities are measured across multiple channels, various channels often provide conflicting measurements to the network. We have incorporated a veto scheme for conflict resolution. This mechanism provides a novel explanation for the spatial frequency dependency of the psychophysical phenomenon called Motion Capture. 1 MOTIVATION We previously developed a two-stage model of motion computation in the visual system of primates (Le.
Neural Dynamics of Motion Segmentation and Grouping
A neural network model of motion segmentation by visual cortex is described. The model clarifies how preprocessing of motion signals by a Motion Oriented Contrast Filter (MOC Filter) is joined to long-range cooperative motion mechanisms in a motion Cooperative Competitive Loop (CC Loop) to control phenomena such as as induced motion, motion capture, and motion aftereffects. The total model system is a motion Boundary Contour System (BCS) that is computed in parallel with a static BCS before both systems cooperate to generate a boundary representation for three dimensional visual form perception. The present investigations clarify how the static BCS can be modified for use in motion segmentation problems, notably for analyzing how ambiguous local movements (the aperture problem) on a complex moving shape are suppressed and actively reorganized into a coherent global motion signal. 1 INTRODUCTION: WHY ARE STATIC AND MOTION BOUNDARY CONTOUR SYSTEMS NEEDED? Some regions, notably MT, of visual cortex are specialized for motion processing. However, even the earliest stages of visual cortex processing, such as simple cells in VI, require stimuli that change through time for their maximal activation and are direction-sensitive. Why has evolution generated regions such as MT, when even VI is change-sensitive and direction-sensitive? What computational properties are achieved by MT that are not already available in VI?
Stereopsis by a Neural Network Which Learns the Constraints
Khotanzad, Alireza, Lee, Ying-Wung
This paper presents a neural network (NN) approach to the problem of stereopsis. The correspondence problem (finding the correct matches between the pixels of the epipolar lines of the stereo pair from amongst all the possible matches) is posed as a non-iterative many-to-one mapping. A two-layer feed forward NN architecture is developed to learn and code this nonlinear and complex mapping using the back-propagation learning rule and a training set. The important aspect of this technique is that none of the typical constraints such as uniqueness and continuity are explicitly imposed. All the applicable constraints are learned and internally coded by the NN enabling it to be more flexible and more accurate than the existing methods. The approach is successfully tested on several randomdot stereograms. It is shown that the net can generalize its learned mapping to cases outside its training set. Advantages over the Marr-Poggio Algorithm are discussed and it is shown that the NN performance is superIOr.
Learning to See Rotation and Dilation with a Hebb Rule
Sereno, Martin I., Sereno, Margaret E.
Sereno, 1987) showed that a feedforward network with area VIlike input-layer units and a Hebb rule can develop area MTlike second layer units that solve the aperture problem for pattern motion. The present study extends this earlier work to more complex motions. Saito et al. (1986) showed that neurons with large receptive fields in macaque visual area MST are sensitive to different senses of rotation and dilation, irrespective of the receptive field location of the movement singularity. A network with an MTlike second layer was trained and tested on combinations of rotating, dilating, and translating patterns. Third-layer units learn to detect specific senses of rotation or dilation in a position-independent fashion, despite having position-dependent direction selectivity within their receptive fields.