Adaptation and gain normalization: a comment on Ullman & Schechtman (1982).

A well-known process for adaptation and gain normalization is compared with the process described by S. Ullman and G. Schechtman (Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 216, 299-313 (1982)). A neural interpretation of this process in terms of transmitter gating, slow accumulation, and release is described. Applications to a wide variety of problems in perception, cognition, and motivated behaviour can be made by embedding the gating process into opponent processes, notably shunting on-centre off-surround networks, to form a network module called a gated dipole field.