Figure 5.

12-group architecture with self. (A) We permanently occupy one of the hole groups, group 10 (cyan), thus mimicking the permanent presence of self. This state is not favorable since the self couples to singletons and periphery, which have a high occupation. (B) Letting the thus prepared system evolve, it soon reaches a new steady state, still a 12-group architecture, but organized such that the self now belongs to the singletons and thus couples only to the almost empty stable holes. The self-recognizing idiotypes are controlled by the network, thus providing self-tolerance.