Lateral Inhibition and Simultaneous Contrast

Figure 7 shows an example of lateral inhibition and simultaneous contrast. There is same amount of light is reflected on these two squares, however, the grey box in the right square looks darker than the grey box in the black square. Both grey boxes are the same colour. Simultaneous contrast occur when when the electrical signals received from the receptors in surrounding black box is less intense than the signals received in the surrounding white box. There is more inhibition in the surround of the white box causing less firing in the grey square, thus the grey look darker as compared to the grey square in the black box.