A detailed theory of thalamic and cortical microcircuits for predictive visual inference.

Abstract

Understanding cortical microcircuitry requires theoretical models that can tease apart their computational logic from biological details. Although Bayesian inference serves as an abstract framework of cortical computation, precisely mapping concrete instantiations of computational models to biology under real-world tasks is necessary to produce falsifiable neural models. On the basis of a recent generative model, recursive cortical networks, that demonstrated excellent performance on vision benchmarks, we derive a theoretical cortical microcircuit by placing the requirements of the computational model within biological constraints. The derived model suggests precise algorithmic roles for the columnar and laminar feed-forward, feedback, and lateral connections, the thalamic pathway, blobs and interblobs, and the innate lineage-specific interlaminar connectivity within cortical columns. The model also explains several visual phenomena, including the subjective contour effect and neon-color spreading effect, with circuit-level precision. Our model and methodology provides a path forward in understanding cortical and thalamic computations.