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Collinear stimuli regulate visual responses depending on cell's contrast threshold

Author

Listed:
  • Uri Polat

    (Institute for Vision Research)

  • Keiko Mizobe

    (Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine)

  • Mark W. Pettet

    (The Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute)

  • Takuji Kasamatsu

    (The Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute)

  • Anthony M. Norcia

    (The Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute)

Abstract

Neurons in the primary visual cortex are selective for the size, orientation and direction of motion of patterns falling within a restricted region of visual space known as the receptive field1. The response to stimuli presented within the receptive field can be facilitated or suppressed by other stimuli falling outside the receptive field which, when presented in isolation, fail to activate the cell2,3,4,5,6,7,8. Whether this interaction is facilitative3,4,7,9,10,11,12 or suppressive2,3,5,6,8,9,10,11,12,13,14 depends on the relative orientation of pattern elements inside and outside the receptive field. Here we show that neuronal facilitation preferentially occurs when a near-threshold stimulus inside the receptive field is flanked by higher-contrast, collinear elements located in surrounding regions of visual space. Collinear flanks and orthogonally oriented flanks, however, both act to reduce the response to high-contrast stimuli presented within the receptive field. The observed pattern of facilitation and suppression may be the cellular basis for the observation in humans that the detectability of an oriented pattern is enhanced by collinear flanking elements15,16,17. Modulation of neuronal responses by stimuli falling outside their receptive fields may thus represent an early neural mechanism for encoding objects and enhancing their perceptual saliency.

Suggested Citation

  • Uri Polat & Keiko Mizobe & Mark W. Pettet & Takuji Kasamatsu & Anthony M. Norcia, 1998. "Collinear stimuli regulate visual responses depending on cell's contrast threshold," Nature, Nature, vol. 391(6667), pages 580-584, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:391:y:1998:i:6667:d:10.1038_35372
    DOI: 10.1038/35372
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Ruben Coen-Cagli & Peter Dayan & Odelia Schwartz, 2012. "Cortical Surround Interactions and Perceptual Salience via Natural Scene Statistics," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(3), pages 1-18, March.
    2. Sophie Hall & Patrick Bourke & Kun Guo, 2014. "Low Level Constraints on Dynamic Contour Path Integration," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(6), pages 1-9, June.
    3. Li Zhaoping & Li Zhe, 2015. "Primary Visual Cortex as a Saliency Map: A Parameter-Free Prediction and Its Test by Behavioral Data," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(10), pages 1-39, October.
    4. Malte Persike & Günter Meinhardt, 2015. "Effects of Spatial Frequency Similarity and Dissimilarity on Contour Integration," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(6), pages 1-19, June.
    5. Yoram S Bonneh & Tobias H Donner & Alexander Cooperman & David J Heeger & Dov Sagi, 2014. "Motion-Induced Blindness and Troxler Fading: Common and Different Mechanisms," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(3), pages 1-8, March.
    6. Li Zhaoping & Li Jingling, 2008. "Filling-In and Suppression of Visual Perception from Context: A Bayesian Account of Perceptual Biases by Contextual Influences," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 4(2), pages 1-13, February.
    7. Xaq Pitkow & Haim Sompolinsky & Markus Meister, 2007. "A Neural Computation for Visual Acuity in the Presence of Eye Movements," PLOS Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 5(12), pages 1-14, December.
    8. Udo A Ernst & Sunita Mandon & Nadja Schinkel–Bielefeld & Simon D Neitzel & Andreas K Kreiter & Klaus R Pawelzik, 2012. "Optimality of Human Contour Integration," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(5), pages 1-17, May.

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