Neural Computations Underlying Visual Preception

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To understand the computations that take place in the human visual system and ultimately palliate disorders, it is essential to know how the system works in natural situations. Despite the immense success of neurophysiological research over the past forty years, it is the case that virtually all data were collected in greatly simplified behavioral situations and with simplified visual input. The long term goal of the proposed research is to elucidate the neural processing responsible for perception in natural visual situations that humans experience. Preliminary data show that key elements of natural vision including saccades and natural visual context have significant effects on the representation of information in primary visual cortex. It appears that fundamental aspects of visual processing can only be fully understood with natural visual input and behavior. The proposed experiments will establish the critical roles of natural context and patterns of eye movements and fixations in two specific aims: 1) Explain why saccades play a fundamental role in shaping V1 responses. 2) Identify the spatial and temporal aspects of visual context that are important in natural vision. The rationale behind the experiments is that in order to fill the gap in our understanding of natural visual processing we must conduct experiments that progressively build a bridge between conventional laboratory paradigms and natural vision. The significance of the proposed research is that it takes the next critical step bringing us significantly closer to an understanding of visual system function in situations encountered by humans. This is the knowledge needed to work toward solutions to visual deficits.