Topography and Ocular Dominance with Positive Correlations

A new computational model that addresses the formation of both topography and ocular dominance is presented. This is motivated by experimental evidence that these phenomena may be subserved by the same mechanisms. An important aspect of this model is that ocular dominance segregation can occur when input activity is both distributed, and positively correlated between the eyes. This allows investigation of the dependence of the pattern of ocular dominance stripes on the degree of correlation between the eyes: it is found that increasing correlation leads to narrower stripes. Experiments are suggested to test whether such behaviour occurs in the natural system.