Winner-take-all selection in a neural system with delayed feedback

TL;DR

This paper investigates how delayed feedback in a neural system inspired by avian circuitry can enable winner-take-all selection and oscillatory behavior, highlighting the role of delays in neural dynamics.

Contribution

It demonstrates that delayed feedback with specific excitation-inhibition topology can produce winner-take-all and oscillations, linking delays to neural computation.

Findings

Large delays induce winner-take-all behavior.

Local inhibition with global excitation causes oscillations.

Oscillations originate from finite delays, confirmed by stability analysis.

Abstract

We consider the effects of temporal delay in a neural feedback system with excitation and inhibition. The topology of our model system reflects the anatomy of the avian isthmic circuitry, a feedback structure found in all classes of vertebrates. We show that the system is capable of performing a `winner-take-all' selection rule for certain combinations of excitatory and inhibitory feedback. In particular, we show that when the time delays are sufficiently large a system with local inhibition and global excitation can function as a `winner-take-all' network and exhibit oscillatory dynamics. We demonstrate how the origin of the oscillations can be attributed to the finite delays through a linear stability analysis.