A biological visual based contour detection model was presented. Firstly, the response function of single visual cell was simulated by researching on the structure of primary visual cortex. Then, a new neighboring effect term was constructed to characterize the neighboring interactions of the neurons in receptive field. By considering the difference in distance, posi- tion and preferred orientation between neighboring stimuli and the central neuron, the model effectively suppresses the inter- ference of the background texture and enhances the response of the neurons with the same configuration. Thus, it obtains a clear contour. The experimental results show that our model overcomes the drawbacks of the traditional algorithms, and it has a better detection accuracy and stability, and it can obtain the gratifying results in actual detection mission.