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Fig. 3.10. Three-dimensional model of ocular dominance. The model consists of a two-dimensional map of a three-dimensional space. The first two dimensions can be interpreted as retinotopy and the third dimension as ocular dominance (Ritter et al. 1991, 1992). In (a), the input space is indicated by the box outline, and the weight vectors of the map units are plotted in this space as a grid (as in Figure 3.6). The map extends along the longer retinotopic dimensions x and y, and folds in the smaller height dimension to approximate the space. (b) The weight value for the height dimension is visualized for each neuron: Gray-scale values from black to white represent continuously changing values from low to high. The resulting pattern resembles the ocular dominance stripes found in the visual cortex, suggesting that they too could be the result of a self-organized mapping of a three-dimensional parameter space.