Adaptive scales of integration and response latencies in a critically-balanced model of the primary visual cortex

The primary visual cortex (V1) integrates information over scales in visual space, which have been shown to vary, in an input-dependent manner, as a function of contrast and other visual parameters. Which algorithms the brain uses to achieve this feat are largely unknown and an open problem in visual neuroscience. We demonstrate that a simple dynamical mechanism can account for this contrast-dependent scale of integration in visuotopic space as well as connect this property to two other stimulus-dependent features of V1: extents of lateral integration on the cortical surface and response latencies.