Adaptive Scales of Spatial Integration and Response Latencies in a Critically-Balanced Model of the Primary Visual Cortex

The brain processes visual inputs having structure over a large range of spatial scales. The precise mechanisms or algorithms used by the brain to achieve this feat are largely unknown and an open problem in visual neuroscience. In particular, the spatial extent in visual space over which primary visual cortex (V1) performs evidence integration has been shown to change as a function of contrast and other visual parameters, thus adapting scale in visual space in an input-dependent manner. We demonstrate that a simple dynamical mechanism---dynamical criticality---can simultaneously account for the well-documented input-dependence characteristics of three properties of V1: scales of integration in visuotopic space, extents of lateral integration on the cortical surface, and response latencies.