Inferring figure-ground using a recurrent integrate-and-fire neural circuit

IEEE Trans Neural Syst Rehabil Eng. 2005 Jun;13(2):125-30. doi: 10.1109/TNSRE.2005.847388.

Abstract

Several theories of early visual perception hypothesize neural circuits that are responsible for assigning ownership of an object's occluding contour to a region which represents the "figure." Previously, we have presented a Bayesian network model which integrates multiple cues and uses belief propagation to infer local figure-ground relationships along an object's occluding contour. In this paper, we use a linear integrate-and-fire model to demonstrate how such inference mechanisms could be carried out in a biologically realistic neural circuit. The circuit maps the membrane potentials of individual neurons to log probabilities and uses recurrent connections to represent transition probabilities. The network's "perception" of figure-ground is demonstrated for several examples, including perceptually ambiguous figures, and compared qualitatively and quantitatively with human psychophysics.

Publication types

  • Clinical Trial
  • Comparative Study
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
  • Validation Study

MeSH terms

  • Action Potentials / physiology*
  • Animals
  • Computer Simulation
  • Humans
  • Models, Neurological*
  • Models, Statistical
  • Nerve Net / physiology*
  • Neurons, Afferent / physiology*
  • Synaptic Transmission / physiology*
  • Visual Cortex / physiology*
  • Visual Perception / physiology*