A model of surround suppression through cortical feedback

Surround suppression occurs when a visual stimulus outside a neuron's classical receptive field causes a reduction in firing rate. It has become clear that several mechanisms are working together to induce center–surround effects such as surround suppression. While several models exist that rely on lateral connections within V1 to explain surround suppression, few have been proposed that show how cortical feedback might play a role. In this work, we propose a theory in which reductions in excitatory feedback contribute to a neuron's suppressed firing rate. We also provide a computational model that incorporates this idea.