Figure 1.

The center-annular-surround (CAS) spiking network architecture leads to winner-take-all (WTA) dynamics. (A) The CAS network architecture consists of interconnected spiking neurons, excitatory (green ovals), and inhibitory (red ovals). Each population is arranged in a two-dimensional grid. Connections from representative cells are illustrated. Axons from excitatory neurons (green arrows) project to neurons within green areas. Axons from inhibitory neurons (red arrows) project to neurons in the transparent red annular areas. The sensory input projecting non-topographically to both the excitatory and inhibitory “cortical” populations is not shown. (B) The CAS connectivity leads to WTA dynamics: small areas of high activity are surrounded by large regions with little activity. The firing rates of excitatory neurons in the network are shown as pixels with brightness proportional to firing-rate indicated by the scale bar to the right (in Hz). The number and size of the winning regions are functions of a variety of network parameters.