@Falco: in the case of responsiveness to specific edge orientations, we have that kind of topological map all over V1:
a pinwheel in that context is any of those particular spots where you have a central point surrounded by each possible color… and when he said the abstract schema of a circular arrangement surrounding an inhibitor was inspired by those, that triggered Jeff to look for it in the subsequent slides…
not all places are pinwheels, yet they are found with relative regularity. It seems to me it is quite “natural” that they do so in that topological context… but surely some tricky local inhibition has to be pervasive for arranging those beautiful color patches just the way they are.
not sure it was worth arguing about pinwheels specifically, though.
@CollinsEM : constraint on SDR yes.
but I believe there’s still much encoding space to mess around…