That was my first thought as well. As far as I know, the most popular simple model used for this in the neuro literature, divisive normalization, uses similar but not quite identical formula. Different authors use different variations, but it's something shaped like
zi=yαiβα+∑jκijyαj
where yi is the unit's activation before lateral inhibition, β adds a shift/bias, κij are the respective inhibition coefficients, and the exponent α modulates the sharpness of the sigmoid (2 is a typical value). Here's an interactive desmo... (read more)
That was my first thought as well. As far as I know, the most popular simple model used for this in the neuro literature, divisive normalization, uses similar but not quite identical formula. Different authors use different variations, but it's something shaped like
zi=yαiβα+∑jκijyαjwhere yi is the unit's activation before lateral inhibition, β adds a shift/bias, κij are the respective inhibition coefficients, and the exponent α modulates the sharpness of the sigmoid (2 is a typical value). Here's an interactive desmo... (read more)