Psychophysical and computational study on feature integration and stimulus context dependence in the perception of object attributes.

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

We investigated how the visual cortex integrates extracted features to perceive the object attribute. In the present study, we proposed a computational model of the cortical architecture that integrated the features, based on psychophysical findings and detailed physiological knowledge. Specifically, we proposed the hypothesis that the extracted features within each stage of cortical processes are integrated based on the contextual dependency of the stage.The computational model includes the contextual dependency of V1 and V2 regions, which consists of (1)extraction of line orientation, (2)contextual dependency realized by surrounding suppression and facilitation, and (3)determination of the direction of border ownership. We examined quantitatively whether this model reproduced the perception of contours and surfaces with close resemblance to physiological and psychophysical findings.The model that include contextual modulation of V1 neurons showed the simulation results consistent with a number of tilt illusions. The model of V2 showed that contrast information extracted from V1 neurons were capable of determining the direction of figure without the detection of T-junctions and corners. The proposed model showed consistent and robust responses that are apparent in the perception of contour and the direction of figure, and reproduced major characteristics of physiology and psychophysics.