Reaction-diffusion based model to develop binocular simple cells in visual cortex along with cortical maps

In this paper we present reaction-diffusion based two eye model to develop disparity selective binocular simple cell receptive fields (RFs) in layer IV of cat visual cortex (V1). Pre-eye opening environment is used for development of binocular simple cell RFs. Our model also supports post-eye opening period development of binocular simple cell RFs. Developed binocular simple cells, left and right receptive fields have: (i) matched preferred orientations (interocular difference in preferred orientations of both eyes are within ±20° (μ=13.5°, S.D=12.7°)), (ii) matched spatial frequencies (with mean difference=μ=0.007, S.D=0.0617), (iii) varying ocular dominance, and (iv) position and phase disparities, with slight positive correlation (r=0.3); which conforms to biological findings. Developed orientation and ocular dominance (OD) maps have OD peaks lying on/near the pinwheel singularities of the orientation map, which is in congruence with experimental findings by Crair et al.