Common-onset masking simulated with a distributed-code model

A distributed-coding model incorporating lateral inhibition in a simulated nerve network has been successful in accounting for many properties of backward masking (Bridgeman, 1971, 1978), linking modeling with neurophysiology and psychophysics. Metacontrast is a variety of backward masking that is of particular interest in uncovering properties of visual coding because target and mask do not overlap in time or space, and it is the first stimulus that is reduced in visibility, not the second. The lateral inhibitory model can also simulate common-onset masking, where a target and mask appear simultaneously but the mask disappears after a variable delay, and it can reproduce qualitatively the effects of attention on object substitution by varying the time interval over which sensory codes are analyzed.