1
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Dopkins S. How is visual separation assessed? By counting distance units. Front Psychol 2024; 15:1410297. [PMID: 38873519 PMCID: PMC11169693 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1410297] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/31/2024] [Accepted: 05/14/2024] [Indexed: 06/15/2024] Open
Abstract
How does the human visual system assess the separation between pairs of stimuli in a frontal plane? According to the direct (or subtractive) view the system finds the difference between the positions of the stimuli in a localization system. According to the indirect (or additive) view the system finds the number of instances of a distance unit lying between representations of the stimuli. Critically, position is explicitly represented under the direct view, with separation being derived from position. Position is not explicitly represented under the indirect view; separation is consequently inferred by counting an internal unit of distance. Recent results favor the indirect over the direct view of separation assessment. Dissociations between assessments of separation and position, various context effects in the assessment of separation, and suggestions that position information is not cleanly accessed argue against the direct view. At the same time, various context effects in separation assessment argue for the indirect view. Recent findings regarding the brain bases of vision are consistent with the indirect view. In short, recent results suggest that assessing the separation between two frontal stimuli involves integrating distance units between representations of the stimuli.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephen Dopkins
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, George Washington University, Washington, DC, United States
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2
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Wang G, Foxwell MJ, Cichy RM, Pitcher D, Kaiser D. Individual differences in internal models explain idiosyncrasies in scene perception. Cognition 2024; 245:105723. [PMID: 38262271 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2024.105723] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/14/2023] [Revised: 01/12/2024] [Accepted: 01/14/2024] [Indexed: 01/25/2024]
Abstract
According to predictive processing theories, vision is facilitated by predictions derived from our internal models of what the world should look like. However, the contents of these models and how they vary across people remains unclear. Here, we use drawing as a behavioral readout of the contents of the internal models in individual participants. Participants were first asked to draw typical versions of scene categories, as descriptors of their internal models. These drawings were converted into standardized 3d renders, which we used as stimuli in subsequent scene categorization experiments. Across two experiments, participants' scene categorization was more accurate for renders tailored to their own drawings compared to renders based on others' drawings or copies of scene photographs, suggesting that scene perception is determined by a match with idiosyncratic internal models. Using a deep neural network to computationally evaluate similarities between scene renders, we further demonstrate that graded similarity to the render based on participants' own typical drawings (and thus to their internal model) predicts categorization performance across a range of candidate scenes. Together, our results showcase the potential of a new method for understanding individual differences - starting from participants' personal expectations about the structure of real-world scenes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gongting Wang
- Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany; Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Physics, Geography, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, Germany
| | | | - Radoslaw M Cichy
- Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
| | | | - Daniel Kaiser
- Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Physics, Geography, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, Germany; Center for Mind, Brain and Behavior (CMBB), Philipps-Universität Marburg and Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, Germany.
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3
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Walsh E, Moreira C, Longo MR. Opposite size illusions for inverted faces and letters. Cognition 2024; 245:105733. [PMID: 38281395 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2024.105733] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/05/2023] [Revised: 12/11/2023] [Accepted: 01/21/2024] [Indexed: 01/30/2024]
Abstract
Words are the primary means by which we communicate meaning and ideas, while faces provide important social cues. Studying visual illusions involving faces and words can elucidate the hierarchical processing of information as different regions of the brain are specialised for face recognition and word processing. A size illusion has previously been demonstrated for faces, whereby an inverted face is perceived as larger than the same stimulus upright. Here, two experiments replicate the face size illusion, and investigate whether the illusion is also present for individual letters (Experiment 1), and visual words and pseudowords (Experiment 2). Results confirm a robust size Illusion for faces. Letters, words and pseudowords and unfamiliar letters all show a reverse size illusion, as we previously demonstrated for human bodies. Overall, results indicate the illusion occurs in early perceptual stages upstream of semantic processing. Results are consistent with the idea of a general-purpose mechanism that encodes curvilinear shapes found in both scripts and our environment. Word and face perception rely on specialised, independent cognitive processes. The underestimation of the size of upright stimuli is specific to faces. Opposite size illusions may reflect differences in how size information is encoded and represented in stimulus-specialised neural networks, resulting in contrasting perceptual effects. Though words and faces differ visually, there is both symmetry and asymmetry in how the brain 'reads' them.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eamonn Walsh
- Department of Basic & Clinical Neuroscience, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, UK; Cultural and Social Neuroscience Research Group, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, UK.
| | - Carolina Moreira
- Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck, University of London, UK
| | - Matthew R Longo
- Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck, University of London, UK
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4
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Broda MD, de Haas B. Individual differences in human gaze behavior generalize from faces to objects. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2024; 121:e2322149121. [PMID: 38470925 PMCID: PMC10963009 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2322149121] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/15/2023] [Accepted: 01/22/2024] [Indexed: 03/14/2024] Open
Abstract
Individuals differ in where they fixate on a face, with some looking closer to the eyes while others prefer the mouth region. These individual biases are highly robust, generalize from the lab to the outside world, and have been associated with social cognition and associated disorders. However, it is unclear, whether these biases are specific to faces or influenced by domain-general mechanisms of vision. Here, we juxtaposed these hypotheses by testing whether individual face fixation biases generalize to inanimate objects. We analyzed >1.8 million fixations toward faces and objects in complex natural scenes from 405 participants tested in multiple labs. Consistent interindividual differences in fixation positions were highly inter-correlated across faces and objects in all samples. Observers who fixated closer to the eye region also fixated higher on inanimate objects and vice versa. Furthermore, the inter-individual spread of fixation positions scaled with target size in precisely the same, non-linear manner for faces and objects. These findings contradict a purely domain-specific account of individual face gaze. Instead, they suggest significant domain-general contributions to the individual way we look at faces, a finding with potential relevance for basic vision, face perception, social cognition, and associated clinical conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maximilian Davide Broda
- Experimental Psychology, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Giessen35394, Germany
- Center for Mind, Brain and Behavior, Universities of Marburg, Giessen, and Darmstadt, Marburg35032, Germany
| | - Benjamin de Haas
- Experimental Psychology, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Giessen35394, Germany
- Center for Mind, Brain and Behavior, Universities of Marburg, Giessen, and Darmstadt, Marburg35032, Germany
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5
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Ryu J, Lee SH. Bounded contribution of human early visual cortex to the topographic anisotropy in spatial extent perception. Commun Biol 2024; 7:178. [PMID: 38351283 PMCID: PMC10864322 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-024-05846-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/25/2023] [Accepted: 01/23/2024] [Indexed: 02/16/2024] Open
Abstract
To interact successfully with objects, it is crucial to accurately perceive their spatial extent, an enclosed region they occupy in space. Although the topographic representation of space in the early visual cortex (EVC) has been favored as a neural correlate of spatial extent perception, its exact nature and contribution to perception remain unclear. Here, we inspect the topographic representations of human individuals' EVC and perception in terms of how much their anisotropy is influenced by the orientation (co-axiality) and radial position (radiality) of stimuli. We report that while the anisotropy is influenced by both factors, its direction is primarily determined by radiality in EVC but by co-axiality in perception. Despite this mismatch, the individual differences in both radial and co-axial anisotropy are substantially shared between EVC and perception. Our findings suggest that spatial extent perception builds on EVC's spatial representation but requires an additional mechanism to transform its topographic bias.
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Affiliation(s)
- Juhyoung Ryu
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, 08826, Republic of Korea
| | - Sang-Hun Lee
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, 08826, Republic of Korea.
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6
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Walsh E, Whitby J, Chen YY, Longo MR. No influence of emotional expression on size underestimation of upright faces. PLoS One 2024; 19:e0293920. [PMID: 38300951 PMCID: PMC10833517 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0293920] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/05/2023] [Accepted: 10/20/2023] [Indexed: 02/03/2024] Open
Abstract
Faces are a primary means of conveying social information between humans. One important factor modulating the perception of human faces is emotional expression. Face inversion also affects perception, including judgments of emotional expression, possibly through the disruption of configural processing. One intriguing inversion effect is an illusion whereby faces appear to be physically smaller when upright than when inverted. This illusion appears to be highly selective for faces. In this study, we investigated whether the emotional expression of a face (neutral, happy, afraid, and angry) modulates the magnitude of this size illusion. Results showed that for all four expressions, there was a clear bias for inverted stimuli to be judged as larger than upright ones. This demonstrates that there is no influence of emotional expression on the size underestimation of upright faces, a surprising result given that recognition of different emotional expressions is known to be affected unevenly by inversion. Results are discussed considering recent neuroimaging research which used population receptive field (pRF) mapping to investigate the neural mechanisms underlying face perception features and which may provide an explanation for how an upright face appears smaller than an inverted one. Elucidation of this effect would lead to a greater understanding of how humans communicate.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eamonn Walsh
- Department of Basic & Clinical Neuroscience, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom
- Cultural and Social Neuroscience Research Group, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Jack Whitby
- Department of Basic & Clinical Neuroscience, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Yen-Ya Chen
- Department of Basic & Clinical Neuroscience, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Matthew R. Longo
- Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck, University of London, London, United Kingdom
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7
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Chen L, Wu B, Yu H, Sperandio I. Network dynamics underlying alterations in apparent object size. Brain Commun 2024; 6:fcae006. [PMID: 38250057 PMCID: PMC10799746 DOI: 10.1093/braincomms/fcae006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/21/2023] [Revised: 12/14/2023] [Accepted: 01/09/2024] [Indexed: 01/23/2024] Open
Abstract
A target circle surrounded by small circles looks larger than an identical circle surrounded by large circles (termed as the Ebbinghaus illusion). While previous research has shown that both early and high-level visual regions are involved in the generation of the illusion, it remains unclear how these regions work together to modulate the illusion effect. Here, we used functional MRI and dynamic causal modelling to investigate the neural networks underlying the illusion in conditions where the focus of attention was manipulated via participants directing their attention to and maintain fixation on only one of the two illusory configurations at a time. Behavioural findings confirmed the presence of the illusion. Accordingly, functional MRI activity in the extrastriate cortex accounted for the illusory effects: apparently larger circles elicited greater activation than apparently smaller circles. Interestingly, this spread of activity for size overestimation was accompanied by a decrease in the inhibitory self-connection in the extrastriate region, and an increase in the feedback connectivity from the precuneus to the extrastriate region. These findings demonstrate that the representation of apparent object size relies on feedback projections from higher- to lower-level visual areas, highlighting the crucial role of top-down signals in conscious visual perception.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lihong Chen
- Research Center of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian 116029, China
- Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Dalian 116029, Liaoning Province, China
| | - Baoyu Wu
- Research Center of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian 116029, China
- Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Dalian 116029, Liaoning Province, China
- Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
| | - Haoyang Yu
- Research Center of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian 116029, China
- Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Dalian 116029, Liaoning Province, China
| | - Irene Sperandio
- Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science, University of Trento, Rovereto 38068, Italy
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8
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Yoo SA, Joo SJ. Behavioral examination of the role of the primary visual cortex in the perceived size representation. Sci Rep 2023; 13:21134. [PMID: 38036762 PMCID: PMC10689741 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-48632-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/14/2023] [Accepted: 11/28/2023] [Indexed: 12/02/2023] Open
Abstract
Previous research has shown that neural activity in the primary visual cortex (V1) and V1 surface area may be linked with subjective experience of size illusions. Here, we behaviorally measured the hallway illusion with experimental manipulations as a proxy of V1's influence on size perception. We first tested whether the hallway illusion can persist without further recurrent processing by using backward masking. Next, we examined relations among the hallway illusion magnitude and other perceptual measures that have been suggested to be correlated with V1 surface area. In Experiment 1, the magnitude of the hallway illusion was not affected by the stimulus duration and visual masking when the hallway context was previewed (i.e., complex depth information is already processed). It suggests that V1 activity could support the size illusion to some extent even when recurrent processing between V1 and higher areas is disturbed. In Experiment 2, the hallway illusion magnitude was correlated with the Vernier acuity threshold, but not with physical size discriminability. Our results provide converging evidence with the previous findings in that neural activity in V1 may contribute to size illusions and that V1 surface area is not the sole factor that mediates size perception and visual precision.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sang-Ah Yoo
- Department of Psychology, Pusan National University, Busan, Republic of Korea
| | - Sung Jun Joo
- Department of Psychology, Pusan National University, Busan, Republic of Korea.
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9
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Tangtartharakul G, Morgan CA, Rushton SK, Schwarzkopf DS. Retinotopic connectivity maps of human visual cortex with unconstrained eye movements. Hum Brain Mapp 2023; 44:5221-5237. [PMID: 37555758 PMCID: PMC10543111 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.26446] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/16/2023] [Revised: 06/27/2023] [Accepted: 07/26/2023] [Indexed: 08/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Human visual cortex contains topographic visual field maps whose organization can be revealed with retinotopic mapping. Unfortunately, constraints posed by standard mapping hinder its use in patients, atypical subject groups, and individuals at either end of the lifespan. This severely limits the conclusions we can draw about visual processing in such individuals. Here, we present a novel data-driven method to estimate connective fields, resulting in fine-grained maps of the functional connectivity between brain areas. We find that inhibitory connectivity fields accompany, and often surround facilitatory fields. The visual field extent of these inhibitory subfields falls off with cortical magnification. We further show that our method is robust to large eye movements and myopic defocus. Importantly, freed from the controlled stimulus conditions in standard mapping experiments, using entertaining stimuli and unconstrained eye movements our approach can generate retinotopic maps, including the periphery visual field hitherto only possible to map with special stimulus displays. Generally, our results show that the connective field method can gain knowledge about retinotopic architecture of visual cortex in patients and participants where this is at best difficult and confounded, if not impossible, with current methods.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gene Tangtartharakul
- School of Optometry and Vision ScienceUniversity of AucklandAucklandNew Zealand
- School of Psychology and Centre for Brain ResearchUniversity of AucklandAucklandNew Zealand
| | - Catherine A. Morgan
- School of Psychology and Centre for Brain ResearchUniversity of AucklandAucklandNew Zealand
- Centre for Advanced MRIUniServices LimitedAucklandNew Zealand
| | | | - D. Samuel Schwarzkopf
- School of Optometry and Vision ScienceUniversity of AucklandAucklandNew Zealand
- Experimental PsychologyUniversity College LondonLondonUK
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10
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Kirsch W, Kunde W. Human perception of spatial frequency varies with stimulus orientation and location in the visual field. Sci Rep 2023; 13:17656. [PMID: 37848541 PMCID: PMC10582250 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-44673-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/11/2023] [Accepted: 10/11/2023] [Indexed: 10/19/2023] Open
Abstract
Neuroanatomical variations across the visual field of human observers go along with corresponding variations of the perceived coarseness of visual stimuli. Here we show that horizontal gratings are perceived as having lower spatial frequency than vertical gratings when occurring along the horizontal meridian of the visual field, whereas gratings occurring along the vertical meridian show the exact opposite effect. This finding indicates a new peculiarity of processes operating along the cardinal axes of the visual field.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wladimir Kirsch
- Department of Psychology, University of Würzburg, Röntgenring 11, 97070, Würzburg, Germany.
| | - Wilfried Kunde
- Department of Psychology, University of Würzburg, Röntgenring 11, 97070, Würzburg, Germany
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11
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Haseeb Z, Wolfe B, Kosovicheva A. Spatial variability in localization biases predicts crowding performance. J Vis 2023; 23:9. [PMID: 37432845 DOI: 10.1167/jov.23.7.9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 07/13/2023] Open
Abstract
Visual processing varies substantially across individuals, and prior work has shown significant individual differences in fundamental processes such as spatial localization. For example, when asked to report the location of a briefly flashed target in the periphery, different observers systematically misperceive its location in an idiosyncratic manner, showing different patterns of reproduction error across visual field locations. In this study, we tested whether these individual differences may propagate to other stages of visual processing, affecting the strength of visual crowding, which depends on the spacing between objects in the periphery. We, therefore, investigated the relationship between observers' idiosyncratic biases in localization and the strength of crowding to determine whether these spatial biases limit peripheral object recognition. To examine this relationship, we measured the strength of crowding at 12 locations at 8° eccentricity, in addition to the perceived spacing between pairs of Gaussian patches at these same locations. These measurements show an association between variability in crowding strength and perceived spacing at the same visual field locations: at locations where a participant experienced stronger crowding, their perceived spacing was smaller, and vice versa. We demonstrate that spatial heterogeneity in perceived spacing affects observers' ability to recognize objects in the periphery. Our results support the idea that variability in both spatial sensitivity and bias contribute to variability in the strength of crowding and bolster the account that variability in spatial coding may propagate across multiple stages of visual processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zainab Haseeb
- Department of Psychology, University of Toronto Mississauga, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
- https://applylab.org/
| | - Benjamin Wolfe
- Department of Psychology, University of Toronto Mississauga, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
- https://applylab.org/
| | - Anna Kosovicheva
- Department of Psychology, University of Toronto Mississauga, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
- https://applylab.org/
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12
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Roux-Sibilon A, Peyrin C, Greenwood JA, Goffaux V. Radial bias in face identification. Proc Biol Sci 2023; 290:20231118. [PMID: 37357864 PMCID: PMC10291718 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2023.1118] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/19/2023] [Accepted: 06/02/2023] [Indexed: 06/27/2023] Open
Abstract
Human vision in the periphery is most accurate for stimuli that point towards the fovea. This so-called radial bias has been linked with the organization and spatial selectivity of neurons at the lowest levels of the visual system, from retinal ganglion cells onwards. Despite evidence that the human visual system is radially biased, it is not yet known whether this bias persists at higher levels of processing, or whether high-level representations are invariant to this low-level orientation bias. We used the case of face identity recognition to address this question. The specialized high-level mechanisms that support efficient face recognition are highly dependent on horizontally oriented information, which convey the most useful identity cues in the fovea. We show that face selective mechanisms are more sensitive on the horizontal meridian (to the left and right of fixation) compared to the vertical meridian (above and below fixation), suggesting that the horizontal cues in the face are better extracted on the horizontal meridian, where they align with the radial bias. The results demonstrate that the radial bias is maintained at high-level recognition stages and emphasize the importance of accounting for the radial bias in future investigation of visual recognition processes in peripheral vision.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexia Roux-Sibilon
- Psychological Sciences Research Institute (IPSY), UC Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
- Univ. Grenoble Alpes, Univ. Savoie Mont Blanc, CNRS, LPNC, 38000 Grenoble, France
| | - Carole Peyrin
- Univ. Grenoble Alpes, Univ. Savoie Mont Blanc, CNRS, LPNC, 38000 Grenoble, France
| | - John A. Greenwood
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University College London, London WC1H 0AP, UK
| | - Valérie Goffaux
- Psychological Sciences Research Institute (IPSY), UC Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
- Institute of Neuroscience (IONS), UC Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
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13
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Urale PWB, Schwarzkopf DS. Effects of cortical distance on the Ebbinghaus and Delboeuf illusions. Perception 2023:3010066231175014. [PMID: 37335155 DOI: 10.1177/03010066231175014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/21/2023]
Abstract
The Ebbinghaus and Delboeuf illusions affect the perceived size of a target circle depending on the size and proximity of circular inducers or a ring. Converging evidence suggests that these illusions are driven by interactions between contours mediated by their cortical distance in primary visual cortex. We tested the effect of cortical distance on these illusions using two methods: First, we manipulated retinal distance between target and inducers in a two-interval forced choice design, finding that targets appeared larger with a closer surround. Next, we predicted that targets presented peripherally should appear larger due to cortical magnification. Hence, we tested the illusion strength when positioning the stimuli at various eccentricities, with results supporting this hypothesis. We calculated estimated cortical distances between illusion elements in each experiment and used these estimates to compare the relationship between cortical distance and illusion strength across our experiments. In a final experiment, we modified the Delboeuf illusion to test whether the influence of the inducers/annuli in this illusion is influenced by an inhibitory surround. We found evidence that an additional outer ring makes targets appear smaller compared to a single-ring condition, suggesting that near and distal contours have antagonistic effects on perceived target size.
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Affiliation(s)
- Poutasi W B Urale
- School of Optometry & Vision Science, The University of Auckland, New Zealand
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14
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Himmelberg MM, Winawer J, Carrasco M. Polar angle asymmetries in visual perception and neural architecture. Trends Neurosci 2023; 46:445-458. [PMID: 37031051 PMCID: PMC10192146 DOI: 10.1016/j.tins.2023.03.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/05/2023] [Revised: 03/06/2023] [Accepted: 03/10/2023] [Indexed: 04/10/2023]
Abstract
Human visual performance changes with visual field location. It is best at the center of gaze and declines with eccentricity, and also varies markedly with polar angle. These perceptual polar angle asymmetries are linked to asymmetries in the organization of the visual system. We review and integrate research quantifying how performance changes with visual field location and how this relates to neural organization at multiple stages of the visual system. We first briefly review how performance varies with eccentricity and the neural foundations of this effect. We then focus on perceptual polar angle asymmetries and their neural foundations. Characterizing perceptual and neural variations across and around the visual field contributes to our understanding of how the brain translates visual signals into neural representations which form the basis of visual perception.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marc M Himmelberg
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY 10003, USA; Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY 10003, USA.
| | - Jonathan Winawer
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY 10003, USA; Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY 10003, USA
| | - Marisa Carrasco
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY 10003, USA; Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY 10003, USA.
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15
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Himmelberg MM, Tünçok E, Gomez J, Grill-Spector K, Carrasco M, Winawer J. Comparing retinotopic maps of children and adults reveals a late-stage change in how V1 samples the visual field. Nat Commun 2023; 14:1561. [PMID: 36944643 PMCID: PMC10030632 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-37280-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2022] [Accepted: 03/09/2023] [Indexed: 03/23/2023] Open
Abstract
Adult visual performance differs with angular location -it is better for stimuli along the horizontal than vertical, and lower than upper vertical meridian of the visual field. These perceptual asymmetries are paralleled by asymmetries in cortical surface area in primary visual cortex (V1). Children, unlike adults, have similar visual performance at the lower and upper vertical meridian. Do children have similar V1 surface area representing the upper and lower vertical meridian? Using MRI, we measure the surface area of retinotopic maps (V1-V3) in children and adults. Many features of the maps are similar between groups, including greater V1 surface area for the horizontal than vertical meridian. However, unlike adults, children have a similar amount of V1 surface area representing the lower and upper vertical meridian. These data reveal a late-stage change in V1 organization that may relate to the emergence of the visual performance asymmetry along the vertical meridian by adulthood.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marc M Himmelberg
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY, 10003, USA.
- Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY, 10003, USA.
| | - Ekin Tünçok
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY, 10003, USA
| | - Jesse Gomez
- Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08540, USA
| | - Kalanit Grill-Spector
- Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA
- Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA
| | - Marisa Carrasco
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY, 10003, USA
- Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY, 10003, USA
| | - Jonathan Winawer
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY, 10003, USA
- Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY, 10003, USA
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16
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Meese TS, Baker DH. Object Image Size Is a Fundamental Coding Dimension in Human Vision: New Insights and Model. Neuroscience 2023; 514:79-91. [PMID: 36736613 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2023.01.025] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/03/2022] [Revised: 12/21/2022] [Accepted: 01/21/2023] [Indexed: 02/05/2023]
Abstract
In previous psychophysical work we found that luminance contrast is integrated over retinal area subject to contrast gain control. If different mechanisms perform this operation for a range of superimposed retinal regions of different sizes, this could provide the basis for size-coding. To test this idea we included two novel features in a standard adaptation paradigm to discount more pedestrian accounts of repulsive size-aftereffects. First, we used spatially jittering luminance-contrast adaptors to avoid simple contour displacement aftereffects. Second, we decoupled adaptor and target spatial frequency to avoid the well-known spatial frequency shift aftereffect. Empirical results indicated strong evidence of a bidirectional size adaptation aftereffect. We show that the textbook population model is inappropriate for our results, and develop our existing model of contrast perception to include multiple size mechanisms with divisive surround-suppression from the largest mechanism. For a given stimulus patch, this delivers a blurred step-function of responses across the population, with contrast and size encoded by the height and lateral position of the step. Unlike for textbook population coding schemes, our human results (N = 4 male, N = 4 female) displayed two asymmetries: (i) size aftereffects were greatest for targets smaller than the adaptor, and (ii) on that side of the function, results did not return to baseline, even when targets were 25% of adaptor diameter. Our results and emergent model properties provide evidence for a novel dimension of visual coding (size) and a novel strategy for that coding, consistent with previous results on contrast detection and discrimination for various stimulus sizes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tim S Meese
- College of Health & Life Sciences, Aston University, Birmingham B4 7ET, UK
| | - Daniel H Baker
- Department of Psychology and York Biomedical Research Institute, University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5DD, UK.
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17
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Wu X, Liu M, Wang A, Zhang M. Different attentional focus sizes modulate the size-eccentricity effect. Psych J 2023; 12:25-33. [PMID: 36167945 DOI: 10.1002/pchj.604] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/27/2021] [Accepted: 08/16/2022] [Indexed: 02/04/2023]
Abstract
The size-eccentricity effect is a perceptual distortion phenomenon in which a peripherally located object is perceived to be smaller than a centrally located object. Although the increase in apparent object size caused by attention has been documented, little is known about the effect of different sizes of attentional focus on object appearance. The present study investigated how different sizes of attentional focus affect the size-eccentricity effect using a spatial pre-cueing paradigm. Additionally, we examined the influence of different task types on size perception. A peripheral object following a small attentional focus appeared larger, without observation of the size-eccentricity effect. In contrast, a peripheral object appeared smaller following a large attentional focus in both larger and smaller judgement tasks. These results suggest that the relative size of the attentional focus has opposite effects on the perception of object size, independent of task type. Furthermore, in addition to the structural properties of the retina and the locus of attention, the size of attentional focus determines the extent to which an object appears smaller in the periphery. The present study complements the attentional attraction field model of the size and density of population receptive fields in V1 and further explains how the effect of attention is restricted by retinal structure.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaogang Wu
- Department of Psychology, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou, China
| | - Mingyuan Liu
- Department of Psychology, Research Center for Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Soochow University, Suzhou, China
| | - Aijun Wang
- Department of Psychology, Research Center for Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Soochow University, Suzhou, China
| | - Ming Zhang
- Department of Psychology, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou, China
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18
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Broda MD, de Haas B. Individual differences in looking at persons in scenes. J Vis 2022; 22:9. [DOI: 10.1167/jov.22.12.9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Maximilian Davide Broda
- Experimental Psychology, Justus Liebig University, Giessen, Germany
- Center for Mind, Brain and Behavior (CMBB), University of Marburg and Justus Liebig University, Giessen, Germany
| | - Benjamin de Haas
- Experimental Psychology, Justus Liebig University, Giessen, Germany
- Center for Mind, Brain and Behavior (CMBB), University of Marburg and Justus Liebig University, Giessen, Germany
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19
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Urale PWB, Puckett AM, York A, Arnold D, Schwarzkopf DS. Highly accurate retinotopic maps of the physiological blind spot in human visual cortex. Hum Brain Mapp 2022; 43:5111-5125. [PMID: 35796159 PMCID: PMC9812231 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.25996] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/19/2022] [Revised: 05/18/2022] [Accepted: 06/15/2022] [Indexed: 01/15/2023] Open
Abstract
The physiological blind spot is a naturally occurring scotoma corresponding with the optic disc in the retina of each eye. Even during monocular viewing, observers are usually oblivious to the scotoma, in part because the visual system extrapolates information from the surrounding area. Unfortunately, studying this visual field region with neuroimaging has proven difficult, as it occupies only a small part of retinotopic cortex. Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging and a novel data-driven method for mapping the retinotopic organization in and around the blind spot representation in V1. Our approach allowed for highly accurate reconstructions of the extent of an observer's blind spot, and out-performed conventional model-based analyses. This method opens exciting opportunities to study the plasticity of receptive fields after visual field loss, and our data add to evidence suggesting that the neural circuitry responsible for impressions of perceptual completion across the physiological blind spot most likely involves regions of extrastriate cortex-beyond V1.
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Affiliation(s)
- Poutasi W. B. Urale
- School of Optometry & Vision ScienceUniversity of AucklandAucklandNew Zealand
| | - Alexander M. Puckett
- School of PsychologyUniversity of QueenslandBrisbaneQueenslandAustralia
- Queensland Brain InstituteUniversity of QueenslandBrisbaneQueenslandAustralia
| | - Ashley York
- School of PsychologyUniversity of QueenslandBrisbaneQueenslandAustralia
- Queensland Brain InstituteUniversity of QueenslandBrisbaneQueenslandAustralia
| | - Derek Arnold
- School of PsychologyUniversity of QueenslandBrisbaneQueenslandAustralia
- Queensland Brain InstituteUniversity of QueenslandBrisbaneQueenslandAustralia
| | - D. Samuel Schwarzkopf
- School of Optometry & Vision ScienceUniversity of AucklandAucklandNew Zealand
- Experimental PsychologyUniversity College LondonLondonUnited Kingdom
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20
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Himmelberg MM, Winawer J, Carrasco M. Linking individual differences in human primary visual cortex to contrast sensitivity around the visual field. Nat Commun 2022; 13:3309. [PMID: 35697680 PMCID: PMC9192713 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-31041-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/09/2021] [Accepted: 05/06/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
A central question in neuroscience is how the organization of cortical maps relates to perception, for which human primary visual cortex (V1) is an ideal model system. V1 nonuniformly samples the retinal image, with greater cortical magnification (surface area per degree of visual field) at the fovea than periphery and at the horizontal than vertical meridian. Moreover, the size and cortical magnification of V1 varies greatly across individuals. Here, we used fMRI and psychophysics in the same observers to quantify individual differences in V1 cortical magnification and contrast sensitivity at the four polar angle meridians. Across observers, the overall size of V1 and localized cortical magnification positively correlated with contrast sensitivity. Moreover, greater cortical magnification and higher contrast sensitivity at the horizontal than the vertical meridian were strongly correlated. These data reveal a link between cortical anatomy and visual perception at the level of individual observer and stimulus location.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marc M Himmelberg
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY, 10003, USA.
- Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY, 10003, USA.
| | - Jonathan Winawer
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY, 10003, USA
- Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY, 10003, USA
| | - Marisa Carrasco
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY, 10003, USA
- Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY, 10003, USA
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21
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Structure of visual biases revealed by individual differences. Vision Res 2022; 195:108014. [DOI: 10.1016/j.visres.2022.108014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2021] [Revised: 01/14/2022] [Accepted: 01/19/2022] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
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22
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Ferko KM, Blumenthal A, Martin CB, Proklova D, Minos AN, Saksida LM, Bussey TJ, Khan AR, Köhler S. Activity in perirhinal and entorhinal cortex predicts perceived visual similarities among category exemplars with highest precision. eLife 2022; 11:66884. [PMID: 35311645 PMCID: PMC9020819 DOI: 10.7554/elife.66884] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/25/2021] [Accepted: 03/17/2022] [Indexed: 01/22/2023] Open
Abstract
Vision neuroscience has made great strides in understanding the hierarchical organization of object representations along the ventral visual stream (VVS). How VVS representations capture fine-grained visual similarities between objects that observers subjectively perceive has received limited examination so far. In the current study, we addressed this question by focussing on perceived visual similarities among subordinate exemplars of real-world categories. We hypothesized that these perceived similarities are reflected with highest fidelity in neural activity patterns downstream from inferotemporal regions, namely in perirhinal (PrC) and anterolateral entorhinal cortex (alErC) in the medial temporal lobe. To address this issue with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we administered a modified 1-back task that required discrimination between category exemplars as well as categorization. Further, we obtained observer-specific ratings of perceived visual similarities, which predicted behavioural discrimination performance during scanning. As anticipated, we found that activity patterns in PrC and alErC predicted the structure of perceived visual similarity relationships among category exemplars, including its observer-specific component, with higher precision than any other VVS region. Our findings provide new evidence that subjective aspects of object perception that rely on fine-grained visual differentiation are reflected with highest fidelity in the medial temporal lobe.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kayla M Ferko
- Brain and Mind Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada.,Robarts Research Institute Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
| | - Anna Blumenthal
- Brain and Mind Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada.,Cervo Brain Research Center, University of Laval, Quebec, Canada
| | - Chris B Martin
- Department of Psychology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, United States
| | - Daria Proklova
- Brain and Mind Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
| | - Alexander N Minos
- Brain and Mind Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
| | - Lisa M Saksida
- Brain and Mind Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada.,Robarts Research Institute Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada.,Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
| | - Timothy J Bussey
- Brain and Mind Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada.,Robarts Research Institute Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada.,Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
| | - Ali R Khan
- Brain and Mind Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada.,Robarts Research Institute Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada.,School of Biomedical Engineering, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada.,Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
| | - Stefan Köhler
- Brain and Mind Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada.,Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
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23
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Broderick WF, Simoncelli EP, Winawer J. Mapping spatial frequency preferences across human primary visual cortex. J Vis 2022; 22:3. [PMID: 35266962 PMCID: PMC8934567 DOI: 10.1167/jov.22.4.3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/13/2023] Open
Abstract
Neurons in primate visual cortex (area V1) are tuned for spatial frequency, in a manner that depends on their position in the visual field. Several studies have examined this dependency using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), reporting preferred spatial frequencies (tuning curve peaks) of V1 voxels as a function of eccentricity, but their results differ by as much as two octaves, presumably owing to differences in stimuli, measurements, and analysis methodology. Here, we characterize spatial frequency tuning at a millimeter resolution within the human primary visual cortex, across stimulus orientation and visual field locations. We measured fMRI responses to a novel set of stimuli, constructed as sinusoidal gratings in log-polar coordinates, which include circular, radial, and spiral geometries. For each individual stimulus, the local spatial frequency varies inversely with eccentricity, and for any given location in the visual field, the full set of stimuli span a broad range of spatial frequencies and orientations. Over the measured range of eccentricities, the preferred spatial frequency is well-fit by a function that varies as the inverse of the eccentricity plus a small constant. We also find small but systematic effects of local stimulus orientation, defined in both absolute coordinates and relative to visual field location. Specifically, peak spatial frequency is higher for pinwheel than annular stimuli and for horizontal than vertical stimuli.
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Affiliation(s)
- William F. Broderick
- Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY, USA,https://wfbroderick.com/
| | - Eero P. Simoncelli
- Center for Neural Science, and Courant Institue for Mathematical Sciences, New York University, New York, NY, USA,Flatiron Institute, Simons Foundation, USA,
| | - Jonathan Winawer
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY, USA,
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24
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The human primary visual cortex (V1) encodes the perceived position of static but not moving objects. Commun Biol 2022; 5:181. [PMID: 35233067 PMCID: PMC8888673 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-022-03136-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/01/2021] [Accepted: 02/03/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Brain activity in retinotopic cortex reflects illusory changes in stimulus position. Is this neural signature a general code for apparent position? Here we show that responses in primary visual cortex (V1) are consistent with perception of the Muller-Lyer illusion; however, we found no such signature for another striking illusion, the curveball effect. This demonstrates that V1 does not encode apparent position per se.
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25
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Boeykens C, Wagemans J, Moors P. Perception of the ambiguous motion quartet: A stimulus-observer interaction approach. J Vis 2021; 21:12. [PMID: 34964859 PMCID: PMC8740533 DOI: 10.1167/jov.21.13.12] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Visual perception is the result of a highly complex process depending on both stimulus and observer characteristics and, importantly, their interactions. Generating robust theories and making precise predictions in light of this complexity can be challenging, and the interaction of stimulus- and observer-related effects is often neglected or understated. In the current study, we examined inter- and intra-individual differences and the effects of a wide range of three stimulus characteristics (i.e., spatial distance, temporal distance, and spatial location). Our results indicate that not all individuals show the same group average stimulus-driven effects on the perception of a motion quartet and that these effects are not always equal across the entire stimulus range. Moreover, we observed that there are clear individual differences in spontaneous perceptual dynamics and that these can be overridden by some but not all stimulus manipulations. We conclude that considering different stimulus manipulations, different observers, and their interactions can provide a more nuanced and informative view on the processes governing visual perception. This study examines the effect of spatial distance, spatiotemporal distance, spatial location, and individual differences on the perception of the ambiguous motion quartet.
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Affiliation(s)
- Charlotte Boeykens
- Laboratory of Experimental Psychology, Department of Brain and Cognition, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.,
| | - Johan Wagemans
- Laboratory of Experimental Psychology, Department of Brain and Cognition, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.,
| | - Pieter Moors
- Laboratory of Experimental Psychology, Department of Brain and Cognition, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.,
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26
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Han Y, Tan Z, Zhuang H, Qian J. Contrasting effects of exogenous and endogenous attention on size perception. BRITISH JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY (LONDON, ENGLAND : 1953) 2021; 113:153-175. [PMID: 34435351 DOI: 10.1111/bjop.12529] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/01/2021] [Accepted: 08/16/2021] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Although neuroimaging studies have shown that exogenous and endogenous attention are dissociable, only a few behavioural studies have explored their differential effects on visual sensitivity, and none have directly focused on visual appearance. Here, we show that exogenous and endogenous attention produces contrasting effects on apparent size. Participants performed a spatial pre-cueing comparative judgement task that had been frequently used to test the attentional effects on visual perception. The results showed that a smaller stimulus within the focus of exogenous attention was perceived to be equal in size as a larger unattended stimulus, whereas a larger stimulus within the focus of endogenous attention was perceived to be equal in size as a smaller unattended stimulus. In other words, exogenous attention increased the perceived size while endogenous attention decreased the perceived size. The contrasting effects may be attributed to the mechanism that exogenous attention favours parvocellular processing for which more neurons with smaller receptive fields (RFs) are activated for a given size, whereas endogenous attention favours magnocellular processing for which fewer neurons with larger RFs are activated. This finding shows that exogenous and endogenous attention acts differentially on size perception, and provides supportive evidence for the distinct mechanisms underlying the two types of attentional processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yifei Han
- Department of Psychology, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China.,State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.,Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Zhihao Tan
- Department of Psychology, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Huang Zhuang
- Department of Psychology, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Jiehui Qian
- Department of Psychology, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China
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27
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Kirsch W, Kunde W. On the origin of the Ebbinghaus illusion: The role of figural extent and spatial frequency of stimuli. Vision Res 2021; 188:193-201. [PMID: 34364022 DOI: 10.1016/j.visres.2021.07.016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/21/2021] [Revised: 07/20/2021] [Accepted: 07/27/2021] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
An object is perceived as larger when it is surrounded by smaller context objects than when it is surrounded by larger context objects. The origin of this well-known phenomenon, called as Ebbinghaus or Titchener circles illusion, is still puzzling. Here we introduce a basic explanation of how this illusion could emerge and provide some preliminary empirical support for this idea. In essence, we suggest that changes in the figural extent and in the spatial frequency of the stimulus pattern entail adjustments of the size and resolution of the attentional field, which are accompanied by changes in spatial coding. This approach is consistent with previous observations and can enable a deeper understanding of geometric illusions.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Wilfried Kunde
- Department of Psychology, University of Würzburg, Germany
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28
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Rahnev D. Response Bias Reflects Individual Differences in Sensory Encoding. Psychol Sci 2021; 32:1157-1168. [PMID: 34197259 PMCID: PMC8641135 DOI: 10.1177/0956797621994214] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/03/2020] [Accepted: 12/15/2020] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Humans exhibit substantial biases in their decision making even in simple two-choice tasks, but the origin of these biases remains unclear. I hypothesized that one source of bias could be individual differences in sensory encoding. Specifically, if one stimulus category gives rise to an internal-evidence distribution with higher variability, then responses should optimally be biased against that stimulus category. Therefore, response bias may reflect a previously unappreciated subject-to-subject difference in the variance of the internal-evidence distributions. I tested this possibility by analyzing data from three different two-choice tasks (ns = 443, 443, and 498). For all three tasks, response bias moved in the direction of the optimal criterion determined by each subject's idiosyncratic internal-evidence variability. These results demonstrate that seemingly random variations in response bias can be driven by individual differences in sensory encoding and are thus partly explained by normative strategies.
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29
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Alvarez I, Finlayson NJ, Ei S, de Haas B, Greenwood JA, Schwarzkopf DS. Heritable functional architecture in human visual cortex. Neuroimage 2021; 239:118286. [PMID: 34153449 PMCID: PMC7611349 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118286] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/18/2021] [Revised: 06/08/2021] [Accepted: 06/17/2021] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
We analyzed retinotopic maps from monozygotic and dizygotic twin pairs. Visual field maps in V1-V3 are more similar in monozygotic twins. Heritability is greater in V1 and V3 for polar angle and population receptive field sizes. Eccentricity maps show lesser degree of heritability. Further evidence for link between cortical morphology and topology of retinotopic maps.
How much of the functional organization of our visual system is inherited? Here we tested the heritability of retinotopic maps in human visual cortex using functional magnetic resonance imaging. We demonstrate that retinotopic organization shows a closer correspondence in monozygotic (MZ) compared to dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs, suggesting a partial genetic determination. Using population receptive field (pRF) analysis to examine the preferred spatial location and selectivity of these neuronal populations, we estimate a heritability around 10–20% for polar angle preferences and spatial selectivity, as quantified by pRF size, in extrastriate areas V2 and V3. Our findings are consistent with heritability in both the macroscopic arrangement of visual regions and stimulus tuning properties of visual cortex. This could constitute a neural substrate for variations in a range of perceptual effects, which themselves have been found to be at least partially genetically determined. These findings also add convergent evidence for the hypothesis that functional map topology is linked with cortical morphology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ivan Alvarez
- Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, United States; Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Nonie J Finlayson
- Experimental Psychology, University College London, United Kingdom; Ipsos, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
| | - Shwe Ei
- Experimental Psychology, University College London, United Kingdom; GKT School of Medical Education, Kings College London, United Kingdom
| | - Benjamin de Haas
- Experimental Psychology, University College London, United Kingdom; Department of Psychology, Justus-Liebig University, Giessen, Germany
| | - John A Greenwood
- Experimental Psychology, University College London, United Kingdom
| | - D Samuel Schwarzkopf
- Experimental Psychology, University College London, United Kingdom; School of Optometry & Vision Science, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1142, New Zealand.
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30
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Finlayson NJ, Neacsu V, Schwarzkopf DS. Spatial Heterogeneity in Bistable Figure-Ground Perception. Iperception 2020; 11:2041669520961120. [PMID: 33194167 PMCID: PMC7594238 DOI: 10.1177/2041669520961120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/05/2020] [Accepted: 09/02/2020] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
The appearance of visual objects varies substantially across the visual field. Could such spatial heterogeneity be due to undersampling of the visual field by neurons selective for stimulus categories? Here, we show that which parts of a bistable vase-face image observers perceive as figure and ground depends on the retinal location where the image appears. The spatial patterns of these perceptual biases were similar regardless of whether the images were upright or inverted. Undersampling by neurons tuned to an object class (e.g., faces) or variability in general local versus global processing cannot readily explain this spatial heterogeneity. Rather, these biases could result from idiosyncrasies in low-level sensitivity across the visual field.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nonie J. Finlayson
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University College
London, London, UK; School of Optometry & Vision Science, University of Auckland,
Auckland, New Zealand
| | - Victorita Neacsu
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University College
London, London, UK; School of Optometry & Vision Science, University of Auckland,
Auckland, New Zealand
| | - D. S. Schwarzkopf
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University College
London, London, UK; School of Optometry & Vision Science, University of Auckland,
Auckland, New Zealand
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31
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Eymond C, Seidel Malkinson T, Naccache L. Learning to see the Ebbinghaus illusion in the periphery reveals a top-down stabilization of size perception across the visual field. Sci Rep 2020; 10:12622. [PMID: 32724119 PMCID: PMC7387537 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-69329-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/13/2019] [Accepted: 07/09/2020] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Our conscious visual perception relies on predictive signals, notably in the periphery where sensory uncertainty is high. We investigated how such signals could support perceptual stability of objects' size across the visual field. When attended carefully, the same object appears slightly smaller in the periphery compared to the fovea. Could this perceptual difference be encoded as a strong prior to predict the peripheral perceived size relative to the fovea? Recent studies emphasized the role of foveal information in defining peripheral size percepts. However, they could not disentangle bottom-up from top-down mechanisms. Here, we revealed a pure top-down contribution to the perceptual size difference between periphery and fovea. First, we discovered a novel Ebbinghaus illusion effect, inducing a typical reduction of foveal perceived size, but a reversed increase effect in the periphery. The resulting illusory size percept was similar at both locations, deviating from the classic perceptual difference. Then through an updating process of successive peripheral-foveal viewing, the unusual peripheral perceived size decreased. The classic perceptual eccentricity difference was restored and the peripheral illusion effect changed into a fovea-like reduction. Therefore, we report the existence of a prior that actively shapes peripheral size perception and stabilizes it relative to the fovea.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cécile Eymond
- INSERM U 1127, CNRS UMR 7225, Sorbonne Université, 75013, Paris, France.
- Institut du Cerveau, ICM, PICNIC Laboratory, 47 boulevard de l'hôpital, 75013, Paris, France.
| | - Tal Seidel Malkinson
- INSERM U 1127, CNRS UMR 7225, Sorbonne Université, 75013, Paris, France
- Institut du Cerveau, ICM, PICNIC Laboratory, 47 boulevard de l'hôpital, 75013, Paris, France
| | - Lionel Naccache
- INSERM U 1127, CNRS UMR 7225, Sorbonne Université, 75013, Paris, France.
- Institut du Cerveau, ICM, PICNIC Laboratory, 47 boulevard de l'hôpital, 75013, Paris, France.
- Department of Neurology, AP-HP, Groupe Hospitalier Pitié-Salpêtrière-Charles Foix, Paris, France.
- Department of Neurophysiology, AP-HP, Groupe Hospitalier Pitié-Salpêtrière-Charles Foix, Paris, France.
- Institut de Neurosciences Translationnelles IHU-A-ICM, Paris, France.
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32
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Wang Z, Murai Y, Whitney D. Idiosyncratic perception: a link between acuity, perceived position and apparent size. Proc Biol Sci 2020; 287:20200825. [PMID: 32635869 PMCID: PMC7423464 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2020.0825] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/12/2020] [Accepted: 06/15/2020] [Indexed: 11/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Perceiving the positions of objects is a prerequisite for most other visual and visuomotor functions, but human perception of object position varies from one individual to the next. The source of these individual differences in perceived position and their perceptual consequences are unknown. Here, we tested whether idiosyncratic biases in the underlying representation of visual space propagate across different levels of visual processing. In Experiment 1, using a position matching task, we found stable, observer-specific compressions and expansions within local regions throughout the visual field. We then measured Vernier acuity (Experiment 2) and perceived size of objects (Experiment 3) across the visual field and found that individualized spatial distortions were closely associated with variations in both visual acuity and apparent object size. Our results reveal idiosyncratic biases in perceived position and size, originating from a heterogeneous spatial resolution that carries across the visual hierarchy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zixuan Wang
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Yuki Murai
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan
- Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan
| | - David Whitney
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
- Vision Science Program, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
- Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
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33
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Stoll S, Finlayson NJ, Schwarzkopf DS. Topographic signatures of global object perception in human visual cortex. Neuroimage 2020; 220:116926. [PMID: 32442640 PMCID: PMC7573540 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.116926] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/03/2019] [Revised: 04/20/2020] [Accepted: 05/07/2020] [Indexed: 01/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Our visual system readily groups dynamic fragmented input into global objects. How the brain represents global object perception remains however unclear. To address this question, we recorded brain responses using functional magnetic resonance imaging whilst observers viewed a dynamic bistable stimulus that could either be perceived globally (i.e., as a grouped and coherently moving shape) or locally (i.e., as ungrouped and incoherently moving elements). We further estimated population receptive fields and used these to back-project the brain activity measured during stimulus perception into visual space via a searchlight procedure. Global perception resulted in universal suppression of responses in lower visual cortex accompanied by wide-spread enhancement in higher object-sensitive cortex. However, follow-up experiments indicated that higher object-sensitive cortex is suppressed if global perception lacks shape grouping, and that grouping-related suppression can be diffusely confined to stimulated sites and accompanied by background enhancement once stimulus size is reduced. These results speak to a non-generic involvement of higher object-sensitive cortex in perceptual grouping and point to an enhancement-suppression mechanism mediating the perception of figure and ground. Lower visual cortex activity to grouped vs ungrouped dynamic stimuli is suppressed. When grouping a shape, activity in higher object-sensitive cortex is enhanced. Without shape grouping, activity in higher object-sensitive cortex is suppressed. Grouping-related suppression can be diffusely confined to stimulated cortical sites.
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Affiliation(s)
- Susanne Stoll
- Experimental Psychology, University College London, 26 Bedford Way, London, WC1H 0AP, UK.
| | - Nonie J Finlayson
- Experimental Psychology, University College London, 26 Bedford Way, London, WC1H 0AP, UK
| | - D Samuel Schwarzkopf
- Experimental Psychology, University College London, 26 Bedford Way, London, WC1H 0AP, UK
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Infanti E, Schwarzkopf DS. Mapping sequences can bias population receptive field estimates. Neuroimage 2020; 211:116636. [PMID: 32070751 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.116636] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/18/2019] [Revised: 02/07/2020] [Accepted: 02/12/2020] [Indexed: 10/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Population receptive field (pRF) modelling is a common technique for estimating the stimulus-selectivity of populations of neurons using neuroimaging. Here, we aimed to address if pRF properties estimated with this method depend on the spatio-temporal structure and the predictability of the mapping stimulus. We mapped the polar angle preference and tuning width of voxels in visual cortex (V1-V4) of healthy, adult volunteers. We compared sequences sweeping orderly through the visual field or jumping from location to location employing stimuli of different width (45° vs 6°) and cycles of variable duration (8s vs 60s). While we did not observe any systematic influence of stimulus predictability, the temporal structure of the sequences significantly affected tuning width estimates. Ordered designs with large wedges and short cycles produced systematically smaller estimates than random sequences. Interestingly, when we used small wedges and long cycles, we obtained larger tuning width estimates for ordered than random sequences. We suggest that ordered and random mapping protocols show different susceptibility to other design choices such as stimulus type and duration of the mapping cycle and can produce significantly different pRF results.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elisa Infanti
- UCL Experimental Psychology, 26 Bedford Way, London, WC1H 0AP, UK.
| | - D Samuel Schwarzkopf
- UCL Experimental Psychology, 26 Bedford Way, London, WC1H 0AP, UK; School of Optometry & Vision Science, University of Auckland, 85 Park Road, New Zealand
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35
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Kirsch W, Pfister R, Kunde W. On Why Objects Appear Smaller in the Visual Periphery. Psychol Sci 2019; 31:88-96. [DOI: 10.1177/0956797619892624] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022] Open
Abstract
An object appears smaller in the periphery than in the center of the visual field. In two experiments ( N = 24), we demonstrated that visuospatial attention contributes substantially to this perceptual distortion. Participants judged the size of central and peripheral target objects after a transient, exogenous cue directed their attention to either the central or the peripheral location. Peripheral target objects were judged to be smaller following a central cue, whereas this effect disappeared completely when the peripheral target was cued. This outcome suggests that objects appear smaller in the visual periphery not only because of the structural properties of the visual system but also because of a lack of spatial attention.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Roland Pfister
- Department of Psychology, University of Würzburg, Germany
| | - Wilfried Kunde
- Department of Psychology, University of Würzburg, Germany
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36
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The contribution of linear perspective cues and texture gradients in the perceptual rescaling of stimuli inside a Ponzo illusion corridor. PLoS One 2019; 14:e0223583. [PMID: 31600294 PMCID: PMC6786755 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0223583] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/28/2019] [Accepted: 09/24/2019] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
We examined the influence of linear perspective cues and texture gradients in the perceptual rescaling of stimuli over a highly-salient Ponzo illusion of a corridor. We performed two experiments using the Method of Constant Stimuli where participants judged the size of one of two rings. In experiment 1, one ring was presented in the upper visual-field at the end of the corridor and the other in the lower visual-field at the front of the corridor. The perceived size of the top and bottom rings changed as a function of the availability of linear perspective and textures. In experiment 2, only one ring was presented either at the top or the bottom of the image. The perceived size of the top but not the bottom ring changed as a function of the availability of linear perspective and textures. In both experiments, the effects of the cues were additive. Perceptual rescaling was also stronger for the top compared to the bottom ring. Additional eye-tracking revealed that participants tended to gaze more in the upper than the lower visual-field. These findings indicate that top-down mechanisms provide an important contribution to the Ponzo illusion. Nonetheless, additional maximum likelihood estimation analyses revealed that linear perspective fulfilled a greater contribution in experiment 2, which is suggestive of a bottom-up mechanism. We conclude that both top-down and bottom-up mechanisms play important roles. However, the former seems to fulfil a more prominent role when both stimuli are presented in the image.
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37
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Morgan C, Schwarzkopf DS. Comparison of human population receptive field estimates between scanners and the effect of temporal filtering. F1000Res 2019; 8:1681. [PMID: 31885863 PMCID: PMC6913234 DOI: 10.12688/f1000research.20496.2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 02/24/2020] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Background: Population receptive field (pRF) analysis with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is an increasingly popular method for mapping visual field representations and estimating the spatial selectivity of voxels in human visual cortex. However, the multitude of experimental setups and processing methods used makes comparisons of results between studies difficult. Methods: Here, we compared pRF maps acquired in the same three individuals using comparable scanning parameters on a 1.5 and a 3 Tesla scanner located in two different countries. We also tested the effect of low-pass filtering of the time series on pRF estimates. Results: As expected, the signal-to-noise ratio for the 3 Tesla data was superior; critically, however, estimates of pRF size and cortical magnification did not reveal any systematic differences between the sites. Unsurprisingly, low-pass filtering enhanced goodness-of-fit, presumably by removing high-frequency noise. However, there was no substantial increase in the number of voxels containing meaningful retinotopic signals after low-pass filtering. Importantly, filtering also increased estimates of pRF size in the early visual areas which could substantially skew interpretations of spatial tuning properties. Conclusion: Our results therefore suggest that pRF estimates are generally comparable between scanners of different field strengths, but temporal filtering should be used with caution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Catherine Morgan
- School of Psychology and Centre for Brain Research, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
- Brain Research New Zealand, Auckland, New Zealand
- School of Optometry & Vision Science, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
| | - D. Samuel Schwarzkopf
- School of Optometry & Vision Science, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
- Experimental Psychology, University College London, London, UK
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38
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Morgan C, Schwarzkopf DS. Comparison of human population receptive field estimates between scanners and the effect of temporal filtering. F1000Res 2019; 8:1681. [PMID: 31885863 PMCID: PMC6913234 DOI: 10.12688/f1000research.20496.1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 09/18/2019] [Indexed: 08/31/2023] Open
Abstract
Background: Population receptive field (pRF) analysis with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is an increasingly popular method for mapping visual field representations and estimating the spatial selectivity of voxels in human visual cortex. However, the multitude of experimental setups and processing methods used makes comparisons of results between studies difficult. Methods: Here, we compared pRF maps acquired in the same three individuals using comparable scanning parameters on a 1.5 and a 3 Tesla scanner located in two different countries. We also tested the effect of low-pass filtering of the time series on pRF estimates. Results: As expected, the signal-to-noise ratio for the 3 Tesla data was superior; critically, however, estimates of pRF size and cortical magnification did not reveal any systematic differences between the sites. Unsurprisingly, low-pass filtering enhanced goodness-of-fit, presumably by removing high-frequency noise. However, there was no substantial increase in the number of voxels containing meaningful retinotopic signals after low-pass filtering. Importantly, filtering also increased estimates of pRF size in the early visual areas which could substantially skew interpretations of spatial tuning properties. Conclusion: Our results therefore suggest that pRF estimates are generally comparable between scanners of different field strengths, but temporal filtering should be used with caution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Catherine Morgan
- School of Psychology and Centre for Brain Research, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
- Brain Research New Zealand, Auckland, New Zealand
- School of Optometry & Vision Science, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
| | - D. Samuel Schwarzkopf
- School of Optometry & Vision Science, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
- Experimental Psychology, University College London, London, UK
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Schwarzkopf DS. Size Perception Biases Are Temporally Stable and Vary Consistently Between Visual Field Meridians. Iperception 2019; 10:2041669519878722. [PMID: 31598210 PMCID: PMC6764057 DOI: 10.1177/2041669519878722] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/04/2019] [Accepted: 09/04/2019] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
The apparent size of visual stimuli depends on where in the visual field they appear. We recently presented a model of how size perception could be biased by stimulus encoding in retinotopic cortex. However, it remains unclear if such perceptual biases are instead trivially related to discrimination ability and if they are temporally stable. An independent test of the model is also still outstanding. Here, I show that perceptual biases are stable across stimulus durations between 50 and 1,000 milliseconds, even though discrimination ability unsurprisingly improves with duration. Furthermore, perceptual biases are stronger along the vertical than the horizontal meridian, which mirrors reported differences in spatial vision and the positional selectivity of early visual cortex. Taken together, these findings support our model of how size is inferred from cortical responses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dietrich S. Schwarzkopf
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University
College London, UK; School of Optometry & Vision Science, University of
Auckland, New Zealand
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40
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Abstract
Behavior in novel situations is guided by similarities to previous experiences, a phenomenon known as generalization. Despite the widespread influence of generalization on healthy and pathological behavior, insight into the underlying mechanisms is lacking. It remains unclear whether a failure to notice situational changes contributes to the generalization of learned behavior. We combined a fear conditioning and generalization procedure with a perceptual decision task in humans and found that a failure to perceive a novel stimulus as different from the initial fear-evoking stimulus was associated with increased conditioned responding. These findings demonstrate the potential of a perception-centered approach to better understand (pathological) behavior and its underlying mechanism and are a promising avenue for the development of refined generalization protocols.
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41
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The Critical Role of V2 Population Receptive Fields in Visual Orientation Crowding. Curr Biol 2019; 29:2229-2236.e3. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.05.068] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/12/2018] [Revised: 03/26/2019] [Accepted: 05/28/2019] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
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42
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Hughes AE, Greenwood JA, Finlayson NJ, Schwarzkopf DS. Population receptive field estimates for motion-defined stimuli. Neuroimage 2019; 199:245-260. [PMID: 31158480 PMCID: PMC6693563 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.05.068] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/30/2019] [Accepted: 05/27/2019] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
The processing of motion changes throughout the visual hierarchy, from spatially restricted ‘local motion’ in early visual cortex to more complex large-field ‘global motion’ at later stages. Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine spatially selective responses in these areas related to the processing of random-dot stimuli defined by differences in motion. We used population receptive field (pRF) analyses to map retinotopic cortex using bar stimuli comprising coherently moving dots. In the first experiment, we used three separate background conditions: no background dots (dot-defined bar-only), dots moving coherently in the opposite direction to the bar (kinetic boundary) and dots moving incoherently in random directions (global motion). Clear retinotopic maps were obtained for the bar-only and kinetic-boundary conditions across visual areas V1–V3 and in higher dorsal areas. For the global-motion condition, retinotopic maps were much weaker in early areas and became clear only in higher areas, consistent with the emergence of global-motion processing throughout the visual hierarchy. However, in a second experiment we demonstrate that this pattern is not specific to motion-defined stimuli, with very similar results for a transparent-motion stimulus and a bar defined by a static low-level property (dot size) that should have driven responses particularly in V1. We further exclude explanations based on stimulus visibility by demonstrating that the observed differences in pRF properties do not follow the ability of observers to localise or attend to these bar elements. Rather, our findings indicate that dorsal extrastriate retinotopic maps may primarily be determined by the visibility of the neural responses to the bar relative to the background response (i.e. neural signal-to-noise ratios) and suggests that claims about stimulus selectivity from pRF experiments must be interpreted with caution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna E Hughes
- Experimental Psychology, University College London, 26 Bedford Way, London, WC1H 0AP, UK.
| | - John A Greenwood
- Experimental Psychology, University College London, 26 Bedford Way, London, WC1H 0AP, UK
| | - Nonie J Finlayson
- Experimental Psychology, University College London, 26 Bedford Way, London, WC1H 0AP, UK
| | - D Samuel Schwarzkopf
- Experimental Psychology, University College London, 26 Bedford Way, London, WC1H 0AP, UK
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43
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Born S. Repeatedly Flashed Luminance Noise Can Make Objects Look Further Apart. Iperception 2019; 10:2041669519855090. [PMID: 31258883 PMCID: PMC6591532 DOI: 10.1177/2041669519855090] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/29/2018] [Accepted: 05/13/2019] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Luminance noise is widely used as mask in Experimental Psychology. But can luminance noise also affect where we perceive an object or change the perceived distance between objects? In this study, I investigated the effect of a repeatedly flashed luminance noise pattern on the perceived separation between two bars. Indeed, compared to conditions without dynamic luminance noise, the spacing between the bars was overestimated when the pattern flashed on-and-off in the background. The cause for this remarkably stable effect remains unknown. Potential relations to apparent motion, masking, attentional biases, and other visual illusions are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sabine Born
- Faculté de Psychologie et des Sciences de
l’Education, Université de Genève, Genève, Switzerland
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44
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Zaman J, Ceulemans E, Hermans D, Beckers T. Direct and indirect effects of perception on generalization gradients. Behav Res Ther 2019; 114:44-50. [PMID: 30771704 DOI: 10.1016/j.brat.2019.01.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/16/2018] [Revised: 01/03/2019] [Accepted: 01/14/2019] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
For more than a century, researchers have attempted to understand why organisms behave similarly across situations. Despite the robust character of generalization, considerable variation in conditioned responding both between and within humans remains a challenge for contemporary generalization models. The current study aims to investigate the extent to which variation in behavior in a context of generalization can be attributed to differences in perception. We combined a fear conditioning and generalization procedure with a perceptual decision task in humans. We found that the failure to perceive a novel stimulus as different from the trained fear-evoking stimulus led to increased conditioned responding. Furthermore, perceptual errors yielded perceived stimulus-outcome contingencies that differed substantially from the objective contingencies. Final, the impact of a perceptual error was dependent upon these perceived contingencies. These findings suggest that generalization across a perceptual dimension is to a large extent driven by perceptual errors that directly affect behavior but also indirectly as they yield different learning experiences between individuals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonas Zaman
- Health Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven, Tiensestraat 102, Box 3726, 3000, Leuven, Belgium; Center for the Psychology of Learning and Experimental Psychopathology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven, Tiensestraat 102, Box 3712, 3000, Leuven, Belgium. https://ppw.kuleuven.be/ogp
| | - Eva Ceulemans
- Quantitative Psychology and Individual Differences Research Unit, KU Leuven, Tiensestraat 102, Box 3731, 3000, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Dirk Hermans
- Center for the Psychology of Learning and Experimental Psychopathology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven, Tiensestraat 102, Box 3712, 3000, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Tom Beckers
- Center for the Psychology of Learning and Experimental Psychopathology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven, Tiensestraat 102, Box 3712, 3000, Leuven, Belgium
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45
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de Haas B. How to Enhance the Power to Detect Brain-Behavior Correlations With Limited Resources. Front Hum Neurosci 2018; 12:421. [PMID: 30386224 PMCID: PMC6198725 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2018.00421] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/14/2018] [Accepted: 09/28/2018] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Neuroscience has been diagnosed with a pervasive lack of statistical power and, in turn, reliability. One remedy proposed is a massive increase of typical sample sizes. Parts of the neuroimaging community have embraced this recommendation and actively push for a reallocation of resources toward fewer but larger studies. This is especially true for neuroimaging studies focusing on individual differences to test brain-behavior correlations. Here, I argue for a more efficient solution. Ad hoc simulations show that statistical power crucially depends on the choice of behavioral and neural measures, as well as on sampling strategy. Specifically, behavioral prescreening and the selection of extreme groups can ascertain a high degree of robust in-sample variance. Due to the low cost of behavioral testing compared to neuroimaging, this is a more efficient way of increasing power. For example, prescreening can achieve the power boost afforded by an increase of sample sizes from n = 30 to n = 100 at ∼5% of the cost. This perspective article briefly presents simulations yielding these results, discusses the strengths and limitations of prescreening and addresses some potential counter-arguments. Researchers can use the accompanying online code to simulate the expected power boost of prescreening for their own studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benjamin de Haas
- Experimental Psychology, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Giessen, Germany
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46
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Moutsiana C, Soliman R, de Wit L, James-Galton M, Sereno MI, Plant GT, Schwarzkopf DS. Unexplained Progressive Visual Field Loss in the Presence of Normal Retinotopic Maps. Front Psychol 2018; 9:1722. [PMID: 30374315 PMCID: PMC6196317 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01722] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/20/2018] [Accepted: 08/24/2018] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Lesions of primary visual cortex or its primary inputs typically result in retinotopically localized scotomas. Here we present an individual with unexplained visual field loss and deficits in visual perception in the absence of structural damage to the early visual pathway or lesions in visual cortex. The subject, monocular from an early age, underwent repeated perimetry tests over 8 years demonstrating severe anopia of the lower hemifield, and a clockwise progression of the loss through her upper left visual field. Her visual impairment was evident in a number of standardized tests and psychophysics, especially in tasks assessing spatial integration using illusory contours. However, her intellectual ability was intact and her performance in some other tasks assessing color vision or object detection in scenes was normal. We employed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), electroretinography and visually evoked potentials. Surprisingly, in contrast to the participant's severe anopia, we found no evidence of abnormal function of her early visual pathways. Specifically, we performed retinotopic mapping using population receptive field (pRF) analysis to map the functional organization of visual cortex in the anopic participant and three control participants on two occasions three and a half years apart. Despite the behavioral visual field loss, her retinotopic maps and pRF parameters in visual areas V1-V3 were qualitatively normal. Further behavioral experiments confirmed that this discrepancy was not trivially explained by the difference between stimuli used for retinotopic mapping and perimetry. Structural T1 scans were normal at both time points, and volumetric analysis of white and gray matter tissue on the segmented T1 volumes did not reveal any abnormalities or deterioration over time. Our findings suggest that normal functional organization of early visual cortex without evident structural damage to the early visual pathway as disclosed by the techniques employed in this study does not necessarily guarantee conscious perception across the visual field.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christina Moutsiana
- Psychology, School of Social Sciences, University of Westminster, London, United Kingdom
- Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Radwa Soliman
- Radio-Diagnosis, Assiut University Hospitals, Asyut, Egypt
- The Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Lee de Wit
- Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Merle James-Galton
- National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery (NHNN), London, United Kingdom
| | - Martin I. Sereno
- Psychology, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, United States
- Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck University of London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Gordon T. Plant
- National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery (NHNN), London, United Kingdom
| | - D. Samuel Schwarzkopf
- School of Optometry and Vision Science, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
- UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, London, United Kingdom
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Abstract
Perceptual bias is inherent to all our senses, particularly in the form of visual illusions and aftereffects. However, many experiments measuring perceptual biases may be susceptible to nonperceptual factors, such as response bias and decision criteria. Here, we quantify how robust multiple alternative perceptual search (MAPS) is for disentangling estimates of perceptual biases from these confounding factors. First, our results show that while there are considerable response biases in our four-alternative forced-choice design, these are unrelated to perceptual biases estimates, and these response biases are not produced by the response modality (keyboard vs. mouse). We also show that perceptual bias estimates are reduced when feedback is given on each trial, likely due to feedback enabling observers to partially (and actively) correct for perceptual biases. However, this does not impact the reliability with which MAPS detects the presence of perceptual biases. Finally, our results show that MAPS can detect actual perceptual biases and is not a decisional bias towards choosing the target in the middle of the candidate stimulus distribution. In summary, researchers conducting a MAPS experiment should use a constant reference stimulus, but consider varying the mean of the candidate distribution. Ideally, they should not employ trial-wise feedback if the magnitude of perceptual biases is of interest.
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48
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Howard SR, Avarguès-Weber A, Garcia JE, Stuart-Fox D, Dyer AG. Perception of contextual size illusions by honeybees in restricted and unrestricted viewing conditions. Proc Biol Sci 2018; 284:rspb.2017.2278. [PMID: 29167368 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2017.2278] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/12/2017] [Accepted: 10/23/2017] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
How different visual systems process images and make perceptual errors can inform us about cognitive and visual processes. One of the strongest geometric errors in perception is a misperception of size depending on the size of surrounding objects, known as the Ebbinghaus or Titchener illusion. The ability to perceive the Ebbinghaus illusion appears to vary dramatically among vertebrate species, and even populations, but this may depend on whether the viewing distance is restricted. We tested whether honeybees perceive contextual size illusions, and whether errors in perception of size differed under restricted and unrestricted viewing conditions. When the viewing distance was unrestricted, there was an effect of context on size perception and thus, similar to humans, honeybees perceived contrast size illusions. However, when the viewing distance was restricted, bees were able to judge absolute size accurately and did not succumb to visual illusions, despite differing contextual information. Our results show that accurate size perception depends on viewing conditions, and thus may explain the wide variation in previously reported findings across species. These results provide insight into the evolution of visual mechanisms across vertebrate and invertebrate taxa, and suggest convergent evolution of a visual processing solution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Scarlett R Howard
- Bio-inspired Digital Sensing (BIDS) Lab, School of Media and Communication, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia .,School of Biosciences, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
| | - Aurore Avarguès-Weber
- Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition Animale, Centre de Biologie Intégrative (CBI), Université de Toulouse, CNRS, UPS, Toulouse, France
| | - Jair E Garcia
- Bio-inspired Digital Sensing (BIDS) Lab, School of Media and Communication, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Devi Stuart-Fox
- School of Biosciences, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
| | - Adrian G Dyer
- Bio-inspired Digital Sensing (BIDS) Lab, School of Media and Communication, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.,Department of Physiology, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia
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Todorović D, Jovanović L. Is the Ebbinghaus illusion a size contrast illusion? Acta Psychol (Amst) 2018; 185:180-187. [PMID: 29499478 DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2018.02.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/04/2017] [Revised: 12/28/2017] [Accepted: 02/20/2018] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
The Ebbinghaus illusion, in which a central target surrounded by larger context figures looks smaller than when surrounded by smaller context figures, is usually classified as a size contrast illusion. Thus "size contrast" is the dominant account of this effect. However, according to an alternative "contour interaction" account this phenomenon has little to do with size contrast but is rather caused by distance-dependent attractive and repulsive interactions between neural representation of contours. Here evidence is presented against the size contrast account and consistent with the contour interaction account. Experiment 1 was a control study confirming that the illusion can be obtained using displays consisting only of squares, which are more convenient to manipulate than the standardly used circles. In Experiment 2, the standard configuration involving small context figures surrounding the target was compared to a novel configuration, which involved many "spread" small context figures. The illusory effect of the standard context was stronger than the illusory effect of the spread context, in accord with the prediction of the contour interaction account, and contrary to the prediction of the size contrast account. In Experiment 3 two novel configurations were used, based on standard and spread contexts. The results were in accord with the prediction of the contour interaction account, whereas the size contrast account had no prediction because the stimuli did not involve conventional size contrast. Additional aspects of the stimuli and an account of the illusion based on a perspective interpretation are also discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dejan Todorović
- Laboratory of Experimental Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Belgrade, Serbia.
| | - Ljubica Jovanović
- Laboratoire des systèmes perceptifs, Département d'études cognitives, École normale supérieure, PSL Research University, CNRS, 75005 Paris, France
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Silva MF, Brascamp JW, Ferreira S, Castelo-Branco M, Dumoulin SO, Harvey BM. Radial asymmetries in population receptive field size and cortical magnification factor in early visual cortex. Neuroimage 2018; 167:41-52. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2017.11.021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/07/2016] [Revised: 09/08/2017] [Accepted: 11/12/2017] [Indexed: 10/18/2022] Open
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