[Verse 1]
Start with the retina, nature's first stage
ON and OFF channels dance on the page
When light hits bright, the ON cells sing
When darkness falls, OFF takes the ring
Color opponents red-green and blue
Yellow's the partner that makes the crew
Decorrelating signals clean
Sharpest foundation you've ever seen
[Chorus]
Build it biological, layer by layer
Feedforward's the guess but feedback's the prayer
Oriented filters then pool what you find
Receptive fields growing, position-blind
Divisive normalization keeps the peace
Recurrent loops where robustness finds release
The sweep is fast but the loop earns its keep
That's where your vision learns to see deep
[Verse 2]
First cortical stage needs oriented banks
Simple cells firing in ordered ranks
Edge detectors tuned to every degree
Horizontal, vertical, diagonally free
Pool the responses, complex cells emerge
Invariance grows as the pathways converge
Hierarchy climbing with each neural floor
Bigger receptive windows than the stage before
[Chorus]
Build it biological, layer by layer
Feedforward's the guess but feedback's the prayer
Oriented filters then pool what you find
Receptive fields growing, position-blind
Divisive normalization keeps the peace
Recurrent loops where robustness finds release
The sweep is fast but the loop earns its keep
That's where your vision learns to see deep
[Bridge]
Context surrounds every computation
Divisive control across the nation
Of neurons firing, gain modulation
Predictions flowing down like revelation
Attention carves the signal bright
While suppression dims the surrounding sight
Most models skip this backward stream
But recurrence rules the visual dream
[Verse 3]
Every level needs its normalization
Divisive balance across the population
Winner-take-all when the signal's hot
Soft competition for the neural plot
Position sensitivity fades away
As you climb higher in the processing bay
Translation tolerance starts to grow
From precise pixels to concepts that flow
[Verse 4]
Dorsal stream tracks the where and how
Motion and space in the here and now
While ventral pathway decodes what you see
Objects and faces, identity free
Two streams diverging from V1's core
Each with its purpose, each wanting more
Integration happens where pathways meet
Making perception whole and complete
[Chorus]
Build it biological, layer by layer
Feedforward's the guess but feedback's the prayer
Oriented filters then pool what you find
Receptive fields growing, position-blind
Divisive normalization keeps the peace
Recurrent loops where robustness finds release
The sweep is fast but the loop earns its keep
That's where your vision learns to see deep
[Outro]
Task performance ain't the only game
Faithful modeling stakes its claim
Structure matters, biology's wise
Recurrent feedback opens the eyes