Silicon Superior Colliculus for the Integration of Visual and Auditory Information with Adaptive Axon Connection

Visual and auditory map alignment in the superior colliculus (SC) of the barn owl is important for its accurate localization of prey. The visual map, and hence the alignment, may be purposefully disturbed in a juvenile barn owl by fitting it with ocular prisms, and it is found that it can adapt its auditory map to this mismatch after several weeks training. In our previous SC model, the axon growing process is instructed by an inhibitory network, the strength of which is adjusted using the neural structures involved in spatial localization. Based on this model, a mixed signal integrated circuit of the SC has been designed, and simulation results are consistent with those found by biological experiment. This new model makes possible artificial networks capable of eliminating the disparity between the visual and auditory maps.