Starburst amacrine cells in the mammalian retina respond asymmetrically to movement along their dendrites (Euler et al. 2002; Gavrikov et al. 2003); centrifugal movement elicits stronger responses in each dendrite than centripetal movement. It has been suggested that the asymmetrical response can be attributed to intrinsic properties of the processes themselves (Gavrikov et al. 2003; Barlow 1996; Tukker et al. 2004). But starburst cells are known to release and have receptors for both GABA and acetylcholine. We tested whether interactions within the starburst cell network can contribute to their directional response properties. In a computational model of interacting starburst amacrine cells, we simulated the response of individual dendrites to moving light stimuli. By setting the model parameters for "synaptic connection strength" (cs) to positive or negative values, overlapping starburst dendrites could either excite or inhibit each other. For some values of cs, we observed a very robust inward/outward asymmetry of the starburst dendrites consistent with the reported physiological findings. This is the case, for example, if a starburst cell receives inhibition from other starburst cells located in its surround. For other values of cs, individual dendrites can respond best either to inward movement, or respond symmetrically. A properly wired network of starburst cells can therefore account for the experimentally observed asymmetry of their responses to movement, independent of any internal biophysical or biochemical properties of starburst cell dendrites.