What about flip-flops? These are pairs of switches

that inhibit each other mutually.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flip-flop_(electronics%29

In the neuronal world there is a phenomenon called

lateral inhibition. A neuron (or cluster of neurons)

inhibits other neurons in its surrounding. The effect

is dependent on distance. Neurons far away are not

affected much, only those in the neighborhood.

How much a neuon has an activating or

inhibiting influence on its neighbors dependent

on distance is often modelled as sombrero function.

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=please+show+me+sin%28x%29%2F+x+%3D+for+x+%3D+-10+to+10

Regards,

Joachim

Joachim,

I agree, lateral inhibition is good for contrast strengthening or edge detection but there are many more effects in Gestalt psychology like proximity, similarity, closure, symmetry and many more. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestalt_psychology

Pieter R. Roelfsema addresses many of these issues in "Cortical Algorithms for

Perceptual Grouping" in Annual Review of Neuroscience. 2006. 29:203–27.

Also; Micah M. Murray and Christoph S. Herrmann 2013. Illusory contours: a window onto the neurophysiology of constructing perception. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 1–11. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2013.07.004

Also:

Charles D. Gilbert1,* and Wu Li 2012. Adult Visual Cortical Plasticity. Neuron 75, 250-264.

This paper might also be useful:

M. Saifullah • C. Balkenius. A. Jonsson. 2014. A biologically based model for recognition of 2-D occluded patterns. Cogn Process. 15:13–28

Some of this research deals with proximity, similarity, closure etc., in terms of neural networks in early visual cortex, especially V1 and V2. Hebb's previous research on neurons that fire/wire together go together has been implicated in Gestalt grouping as well as the long range and short range neural interconnections in early visual cortex.

Joachim, Derek,

grateful thanks for your suggestions.

On a more molar level, Feil et al. (2010) describe the exclusivity of sober and intoxicated networks in addiction.

Feil, J,, Sheppard, D., Fitzgerald, P. B., Yücelc M., Lubman, D. I., & Bradshaw, J. L. (2010).Addiction, compulsive drug seeking, and the role of frontostriatal mechanisms in regulating inhibitory control. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 35 248–275.

The utility of neuronal models applied to Gestalt psychology can be most readily apparent in study of visual perception. In particular, Ecological psychology models that place the human actor within his environmental niche - addressing all that implies, both experientially and behaviorally - offer a natural context by which to theorize how a rich visual Gestalt can guide the human actor. J.J. Gibson was particularly helpful in providing a theoretical vision of this human ecological psychological system, inferring that it was the information embodied in the visual environmental array - and not sensations tied to neuronal functioning - being used by the human to guide behavior.

In parallel, the work of Karl Pribram on neural networks led to many similar conclusions, albeit from the biological psychology perspective. His contributions to understanding neural function spanned the vast expanse of mental and behavioral function, providing much insight to brain function from micro to macro levels. His late work described neural functioning from the network perspective, again highlighting that the information embodied within the dendritic webs, and the inherent algorythmic activity of those webs, provided essentially holographic storage of information to be used by the human actor.      

I would add that the tendancy to address Gestalt phenomena as tidbits of perception and illusions that can be made to play visual tricks, using localized neuronal eleectrochemical interactions, are likely to miss the main point (found by Lashley back in the fifties).  It's not the localized cortical activity (the engram) by which perception can be explained - it's the distributed interplay of afferent and efferent information that resides within the cortical network.    

Happy New Year

to all who have contributed their valuable posts and to all who will do this soon.