Networks of Integrate-and-Fire Neurons using Rank Order Coding B: Spike Timing Dependant Plasticity and Emergence of Orientation Selectivity

Rank Order Coding is an alternative to conventional rate coding schemes that uses the order in which a neuron’s inputs fire to encode information. In a visual system framework, we simulated the asynchronous waves of retinal spikes produced in response to natural scenes and used them to stimulate integrate-and-fire V1 neurons that implemented a standard learning rule based on spike timing. After propagating thousands of images, orientation like receptive fields arise in these neurons despite the fact that the input neurons never fired more than once. We also analyze the biological plausibility of such a network.