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DY: Dynamik und Statistische Physik
DY 11: Nonlinear Dynamics
DY 11.3: Talk
Friday, March 4, 2005, 11:00–11:15, TU H2032
Retinotopic Projections: Self-Organization of Neural Maps in the Visual System — •Martin Güßmann1, Axel Pelster2, and Günter Wunner1 — 11. Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany — 2Fachbereich Physik, Universität Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany
Neural connections in the visual system of vertebrates exhibit the
essential feature that they
conserve neighbourhood relations between different sheets of nerve cells.
For instance, neighbouring cells of
the retina project onto neighbouring cells of the tectum, a part of the
brain which
plays an important role in processing optical information. We use a
general model for the
development of such retinotopic projections between manifolds of different
geometries to investigate the generation of ordered patterns between two
strings and two planes,
respectively. The generation of retinotopic projections between two
strings turns out to be very
similar to the case of discrete linear chains analyzed previously by
Häussler and
v.d. Malsburg [1]. It is shown that both for strings and for planes the
emerging retinotopic
states correspond to stationary solutions of the Häussler-equations.
Finally, we present
some numerical results of these self-organization processes and discuss,
in particular,
the influence of different cooperation functions within the retina and
tectum.
[1] A.F. Häussler and C. von der Malsburg, J. Theoret. Neurobiol. 2, 47 (1983)