code: def _updateLateralConnections(self, epsilon, avgActivityPairs):
      
      oldL = self.lateralConnections
      newL = avgActivityPairs.copy()
      np.fill_diagonal(newL, 0.0)
      newL = newL/np.sum(newL, axis=1, keepdims=True)
  
      self.lateralConnections[:,:] = (1 - epsilon)*oldL + epsilon*newL
docs: Sets the weights of the lateral connections based on 
      average pairwise activity of the SP's columns. Intuitively: The more 
      two columns fire together on average the stronger the inhibitory
      connection gets.