Self-organization of orientation-selective and ocular-dominance maps through spike-timing-dependent plasticity

In the primary visual cortex, there are orientation-selective and ocular-dominance maps. These maps correlate with each other. Although many models have been proposed which explain the formation of the orientation-selective map and the ocular-dominance map, these models contain a physiologically implausible process. It is indicated that spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP) can yield a “topographic map” without any constraints. We show that large STDP time constants yield the orientation-selective map, and small STDP time constants yield the ocular-dominance map. This result suggests that the relationship between the orientation-selective and the ocular-dominance maps can be explained by the modulation of STDP time constants.