Observation of periodic waves in a pulse-coupled neural network.

A pulse-coupled neural network was implemented, for the first time to our knowledge, in a hybrid electro-optical laboratory demonstration system. Dynamic coherent traveling-wave patterns were observed that repeated their spatial patterns at each locality with a period that depended on the local input pattern and strength. Coherence and periodicity were maintained far beyond the physical limits of the linking receptive fields, suggesting a new mechanism for information transmission in a network with limited local connectivity. With no linking, the output became chaotic because the relative phases increased linearly in time.