Dendritic inhibition enhances neural coding properties

The presence of a large number of inhibitory contacts at the soma and axon initial segment of cortical pyramidal cells has inspired a large and influe ntial class of neural network model that use post-integration lateral inhib ition as a mechanism for competition between nodes. However, inhibitory syn apses also target the dendrites of pyramidal cells. The role of this dendri tic inhibition in competition between neurons has not previously been addre ssed. We demonstrate, using a simple computational model, that such pre-int egration lateral inhibition provides networks of neurons with useful repres entational and computational properties that are not provided by post-integ ration inhibition.