Synapses that compute motion.

Abstract : Biophysics of computation is a new field that attempts to characterize the role in information processing of the several biophysical mechanisms in neurons, synapses and membranes that have been uncovered in recent years. In this article, we review a synaptic mechanism, based on the interaction between excitation and silent inhibition, that implements a veto-like operation. Synapses of this type may underlie direction selectivity to direction of motion in the vertebrate retina. Keywords: Image processing; Artificial intelligence; Parallel processing.