Our theoretical modelings and experimental observations illustrate that the equilibrium-state luminescence of electron-trapping materials (ETMs) can be controlled to produce either excitatory or inhibitory responses to the same optical stimulus. Because of this property, ETMs have a unique potential in optical realization of neurobiologically based parallel computations. As a classic example, we have controlled the equilibrium-state luminescence of a thin film of this stimulable storage phosphor to make it behave similarly to the receptive fields of sensory neurons in the mammalian visual system, which are responsible for early visual processing.