Briefly describe lateral inhibition. Why is it useful? Draw a figure if necessary
What will be an ideal response?
Answer: Lateral inhibition is a process by which sensory activity at one location inhibits the activity of adjacent neurons. In other words, neurons that are stimulated will "turn off" neighboring neurons. The purpose of lateral inhibition is to enhance sensory contrast and improve edge detection. For example, imagine a pinprick on the surface of the skin. The source of the stimulus (i.e., the point of the pin) is very small, but its pressure on the skin will cause the skin around the pin tip to bend a little as well, which stimulates neighboring receptive fields. Without the process of lateral inhibition, the perception would be that a much larger object was touching the skin, and this would be inaccurate. Instead, lateral inhibition "turns off" neighboring cells (i.e., sensory cells around the pin), and more accurately codes for stimulus size by clearly coding for the stimulus edge.
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