What is meant by lateral inhibition?

Lateral inhibition is the phenomenon in which a neuron’s response to a stimulus is inhibited by the excitation of a neighboring neuron.

What is the main purpose of lateral inhibition?

Lateral inhibition plays an important role in visual perception by increasing the contrast and resolution of visual stimuli. This occurs at various levels of the visual system.

How lateral inhibition could explain the illusion?

Lateral inhibition disables the spreading of action potentials from excited neurons to neighboring neurons in the lateral direction. This creates a contrast in stimulation that allows increased sensory perception.

How does lateral inhibition work in the retina?

Lateral inhibition in the retina occurs as the feedback from the interneurons, horizontal cells and amacrine cells, which receive excitatory inputs from photoreceptors and bipolar cells, respectively, inhibit the excited photoreceptors and bipolar cells and their neighborhood.

What is lateral inhibition?

Lateral inhibition is the process by which stimulated neurons inhibit the activity of nearby neurons. In lateral inhibition, nerve signals to neighboring neurons (positioned laterally to the excited neurons) are diminished.

How do interneurons activate in lateral inhibition?

In lateral inhibition, the activation of a principal cell recruits an interneuron, which, in turn, suppresses the activity of surrounding principal cells.  Adapted from work by Peter Jonas and Gyorgy Buzsaki/Scholarpedia/CC BY-SA 3.0

What is lateral inhibition in the horseshoe crab?

The concept of lateral inhibition was investigated by Hartline et al. in the horseshoe crab ( Limulus polyphemus) [62]. The horseshoe crab is equipped with compound eyes with approximately 800 ommatidia per eye. The visual axis of the ommatidia diverge, with a slight overlap between adjacent pairs.

What is visual inhibition and auditory inhibition?

Visual inhibition enhances edge perception and increases contrast in visual images. Tactile inhibition enhances perception of pressure against the skin. Auditory inhibition enhances sound contrast and sharpens sound perception. Neurons are nervous system cells that send, receive, and interpret information from all parts of the body.