A developmental model of ocular dominance column formation on a growing cortex
We derive an activity-based developmental model of ocular dominance column formation in primary visual cortex that takes into account
cortical growth. The resulting evolution equation for the densities of feedforward afferents from the two eyes
exhibits a sequence of pattern forming instabilities as the size of the cortex increases. We use linear stability analysis to
investigate the nature of the transitions between successive patterns in the sequence. We show that these transitions involve the
splitting of existing ocular dominance columns, such that the mean width of an OD column is approximately preserved during the course of
development. This is consistent with recent experimental observations of postnatal growth in cat.
University of Utah
| Department of Mathematics
|
bressloff@math.utah.edu