orientation detection
by vez0512 / Oct 13, 2026 / Neurons 423,657 / Synapses 0
This genome is designed to detect a range of orientations (0°, 22.5°, 45°, 67.5°, 90°, 112.5°, 135°, and 157.5°) in complex shapes and objects.
Visual input sends the target shape to several angle-detection cortical regions. These regions model the simple cells in the visual cortex that respond to edges with specific orientations. Simple cells have receptive fields with distinct ON and OFF subregions, so light in ON areas and darkness in OFF areas increases their firing (and the opposite pattern reduces it). Complex cells then pool the responses of multiple nearby simple cells with similar orientation preference, creating a more position-tolerant signal that helps integrate local edges into larger contours and shapes.
Each voxel in the visual-input region can activate neurons in an angle-detection region according to predefined connectivity rules. These rules determine which orientation a region detects. For example, the 45_degree_detect rule (Image 1) connects a source neuron to destination neurons positioned along a 45° direction.
When a destination neuron receives converging input from multiple source neurons, the neuron reaches its firing threshold and fires. Neurons that do not receive enough reinforcing input remain inactive. As a result, only neurons consistent with a 45° edge become active. To prevent unintended activations, visual_input also suppresses neurons in the target region using additional mappings. For instance, it keeps the 45_degree_det cortical area from responding to non-45° features (such as 22.5° or 67.5° lines) by inhibiting anything outside the 45° orientation band (Image 2). The other angle-detection regions operate the same way for their respective orientations.
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