Lateral inhibition and center-surround receptive fields are often claimed to be edge enhancers. That means the increase the perceptual value of edges and minimize information where the stimulus is the same or changes slowly. If this is the case what would happen if you had no sharp edges in the stimulus? If we only have edges we get the perception of a central region. In a sense what I have done is the opposite. The output is almost completely non-existent and may even be in the noise. Certainly this output is on a very fine scale suggesting and image that is not very perceptible. Look here where you can see how this clearly matches our perceptions.