  To gain insight into the neural events responsible for visual perception of
static and dynamic optical patterns, we study how neural activation spreads in
arrays of inhibition-stabilized neural networks with nearest-neighbor coupling.
The activation generated in such networks by local stimuli propagates between
locations, forming spatiotemporal waves that affect the dynamics of activation
generated by stimuli separated spatially and temporally, and by stimuli with
complex spatiotemporal structure. These interactions form characteristic
interference patterns that make the network intrinsically selective for certain
stimuli, such as modulations of luminance at specific spatial and temporal
frequencies and specific velocities of visual motion. Due to the inherent
nonlinearity of the network, its intrinsic tuning depends on stimulus intensity
and contrast. The interference patterns have multiple features of "lateral"
interactions between stimuli, well known in physiological and behavioral
studies of visual systems. The diverse phenomena have been previously
attributed to distinct neural circuits. Our results demonstrate how the
canonical circuit can perform the diverse operations in a manner predicted by
neural-wave interference.
