Attention and the Perception of Surfaces

描述(由申请人提供)：要在充满对象的环境中识别对象并与其交互，定义对象的表面的准确感知表示是必不可少的。表面表示过程集成来自早期皮质突起的局部特征信息以形成表面。然而，使表示表面的过程复杂化的是，大多数对象彼此重叠，导致对象表面的遮挡部分没有被早期的皮质过程编码。因此，为了准确地表示表面，表面表示过程使用从环境常数导出的感知规则的武器库，即使它依赖于非遮挡部分的早期特征。但这些知觉规则是如何实现的，在表面表征过程的哪个阶段，以及自上而下的注意如何调节遮挡和被遮挡表面的表征，这些都没有被很好地理解。有鉴于此，我们的建议解决了表示曲面的三个基本问题。这些问题是：A.非正常表面插补中的边界轮廓和表面性质信息；B.双目观察过程中表面形成的操作限制；C.双目表面知觉的抑制机制和可塑性。这些问题将在视力正常的观察者和具有明显感官优势的观察者身上使用心理物理方法进行研究。后一组的观察者倾向于抑制非优势眼看到的图像，当两只眼睛看到不同的图像时；这种情况几乎类似于折磨斜视性弱视患者的极端情况。在这项提案中，我们将测试和评估一种新的知觉学习范式，旨在减少感官眼优势并提高知觉。因此，我们的研究结果不仅将进一步加深对表面知觉和注意机制的认识，而且具有临床意义。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): To recognize and interact with objects in an object-filled environment, an accurate perceptual representation of the surfaces that define the objects is essential. The surface representation process integrates local feature information from the early cortical processes to form surfaces. Complicating the process of representing surfaces, however, is the fact that most objects overlap one another, resulting in the occluded parts of the objects' surfaces not being encoded by the early cortical processes. Thus, to accurately represent surfaces, the surface representation process uses an arsenal of perceptual rules derived from environmental constants even as it relies on the early features of the non-occluded parts. But how these perceptual rules are implemented, at which stage of the surface representation process, and how top-down attention modulates the representation of both the occluding and occluded surfaces are not well understood. In light of these, our proposal addresses three fundamental issues in representing surfaces. The issues are: A. The boundary contour and surface property information in amodal surface interpolation B. The operational constraints in surface formation during binocular viewing C. Inhibitory mechanism and plasticity in binocular surface perception These issues will be investigated using psychophysical methods on human observers with normal vision, and those with significant sensory eye dominance. Observers in the latter group tend to suppress the image viewed by the non-dominant eye when the two eyes see different images; a situation almost resembling the extreme condition afflicting strabismic amblyopia patients. In this proposal, we will test and evaluate a new perceptual learning paradigm aimed at reducing sensory eye dominance and improving perception. Therefore, the outcomes of our investigations will not only further the knowledge of perceptual and attention mechanisms in perceiving surfaces, but also has a clinical significance.