Nonlinear analysis of spatio-temporal receptive fields: I. Dynamic approximation method

Thomas Wennekers

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Submission date: 27. Feb. 2001
Pages: 8
published in: Neurocomputing, 44 (2002), p. 201-206 
DOI number (of the published article): 10.1016/S0925-2312(02)00392-2
Bibtex
Keywords and phrases: receptive fields, neural field equations, nonlinear approximation

Abstract:
I present an approximation method that reduces the spatio-temporal dynamics of localized solutions of nonlinear neural field equations ("bumps") to a set of ordinary differential equations for just the amplitudes and tuning widths of the activation peaks. This enables a practicable analysis of spatio-temporal point spread functions, steady state receptive field profiles, and their stability properties. The lowest order approximation for the amplitudes alone is equivalent to meanfield equations for homogeneously coupled pools of Poissonian neurons. Thus, much of the well studied meanfield behavior should carry over to localized solutions in neural fields.