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Kim T, Pasupathy A. Neural Correlates of Crowding in Macaque Area V4. J Neurosci 2024; 44:e2260232024. [PMID: 38670806 PMCID: PMC11170949 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.2260-23.2024] [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: 12/01/2023] [Revised: 03/29/2024] [Accepted: 04/17/2024] [Indexed: 04/28/2024] Open
Abstract
Visual crowding refers to the phenomenon where a target object that is easily identifiable in isolation becomes difficult to recognize when surrounded by other stimuli (distractors). Many psychophysical studies have investigated this phenomenon and proposed alternative models for the underlying mechanisms. One prominent hypothesis, albeit with mixed psychophysical support, posits that crowding arises from the loss of information due to pooled encoding of features from target and distractor stimuli in the early stages of cortical visual processing. However, neurophysiological studies have not rigorously tested this hypothesis. We studied the responses of single neurons in macaque (one male, one female) area V4, an intermediate stage of the object-processing pathway, to parametrically designed crowded displays and texture statistics-matched metameric counterparts. Our investigations reveal striking parallels between how crowding parameters-number, distance, and position of distractors-influence human psychophysical performance and V4 shape selectivity. Importantly, we also found that enhancing the salience of a target stimulus could alleviate crowding effects in highly cluttered scenes, and this could be temporally protracted reflecting a dynamical process. Thus, a pooled encoding of nearby stimuli cannot explain the observed responses, and we propose an alternative model where V4 neurons preferentially encode salient stimuli in crowded displays. Overall, we conclude that the magnitude of crowding effects is determined not just by the number of distractors and target-distractor separation but also by the relative salience of targets versus distractors based on their feature attributes-the similarity of distractors and the contrast between target and distractor stimuli.
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Affiliation(s)
- Taekjun Kim
- Department of Biological Structure, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195
- Washington National Primate Research Center, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195
| | - Anitha Pasupathy
- Department of Biological Structure, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195
- Washington National Primate Research Center, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195
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Neri P. Human sensory adaptation to the ecological structure of environmental statistics. J Vis 2024; 24:3. [PMID: 38441884 PMCID: PMC10916885 DOI: 10.1167/jov.24.3.3] [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: 03/27/2023] [Accepted: 11/22/2023] [Indexed: 03/07/2024] Open
Abstract
Humans acquire sensory information via fast, highly specialized detectors: For example, edge detectors monitor restricted regions of visual space over timescales of 100-200 ms. Surprisingly, this study demonstrates that their operation is nevertheless shaped by the ecological consistency of slow global statistical structure in the environment. In the experiments, humans acquired feature information from brief localized elements embedded within a virtual environment. Cast shadows are important for determining the appearance and layout of the environment. When the statistical reliability of shadows was manipulated, human feature detectors implicitly adapted to these changes over minutes, adjusting their response properties to emphasize either "image-based" or "object-based" anchoring of local visual elements. More specifically, local visual operators were more firmly anchored around object representations when shadows were reliable. As shadow reliability was reduced, visual operators disengaged from objects and became anchored around image features. These results indicate that the notion of sensory adaptation must be reframed around complex statistical constructs with ecological validity. These constructs far exceed the spatiotemporal selectivity bandwidth of sensory detectors, thus demonstrating the highly integrated nature of sensory processing during natural behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Peter Neri
- Laboratoire des Systèmes Perceptifs (UMR8248), École normale supérieure, PSL Research University, Paris, France
- https://sites.google.com/site/neripeter/
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Moore CM, Zheng Q. Limited midlevel mediation of visual crowding: Surface completion fails to support uncrowding. J Vis 2024; 24:11. [PMID: 38294775 PMCID: PMC10839818 DOI: 10.1167/jov.24.1.11] [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: 03/28/2023] [Accepted: 12/10/2023] [Indexed: 02/01/2024] Open
Abstract
Visual crowding refers to impaired object recognition that is caused by nearby stimuli. It increases with eccentricity. Image-level explanations of crowding maintain that it is caused by information loss within early encoding processes that vary in functionality with eccentricity. Alternative explanations maintain that the interference is not limited to two-dimensional image-level interactions but that it is mediated within representations that reflect three-dimensional scene structure. Uncrowding refers to when adding stimulus information to a display, which increases the noise at an image level, nonetheless decreasing the amount of crowding that occurs. Uncrowding has been interpreted as evidence of midlevel mediation of crowding because the additional information tends to provide an opportunity for perceptually organizing stimuli into distinct and therefore protected representations. It is difficult, however, to rule out image-level explanations of crowding and uncrowding when stimulus differences exist between conditions. We adapted displays of a specific form of uncrowding to minimize stimulus differences across conditions, while retaining the potential for perceptual organization, specifically perceptual surface completion. Uncrowding under these conditions would provide strong support for midlevel mediation of crowding. In five experiments, however, we found no evidence of midlevel mediation of crowding, indicating that at least for this version of uncrowding, image-level explanations cannot be ruled out.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cathleen M Moore
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA
| | - Qingzi Zheng
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA
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Doerig A, Sommers RP, Seeliger K, Richards B, Ismael J, Lindsay GW, Kording KP, Konkle T, van Gerven MAJ, Kriegeskorte N, Kietzmann TC. The neuroconnectionist research programme. Nat Rev Neurosci 2023:10.1038/s41583-023-00705-w. [PMID: 37253949 DOI: 10.1038/s41583-023-00705-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 04/21/2023] [Indexed: 06/01/2023]
Abstract
Artificial neural networks (ANNs) inspired by biology are beginning to be widely used to model behavioural and neural data, an approach we call 'neuroconnectionism'. ANNs have been not only lauded as the current best models of information processing in the brain but also criticized for failing to account for basic cognitive functions. In this Perspective article, we propose that arguing about the successes and failures of a restricted set of current ANNs is the wrong approach to assess the promise of neuroconnectionism for brain science. Instead, we take inspiration from the philosophy of science, and in particular from Lakatos, who showed that the core of a scientific research programme is often not directly falsifiable but should be assessed by its capacity to generate novel insights. Following this view, we present neuroconnectionism as a general research programme centred around ANNs as a computational language for expressing falsifiable theories about brain computation. We describe the core of the programme, the underlying computational framework and its tools for testing specific neuroscientific hypotheses and deriving novel understanding. Taking a longitudinal view, we review past and present neuroconnectionist projects and their responses to challenges and argue that the research programme is highly progressive, generating new and otherwise unreachable insights into the workings of the brain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adrien Doerig
- Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, Germany.
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
| | - Rowan P Sommers
- Department of Neurobiology of Language, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Katja Seeliger
- Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Blake Richards
- Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, McGill University, Montréal, QC, Canada
- School of Computer Science, McGill University, Montréal, QC, Canada
- Mila, Montréal, QC, Canada
- Montréal Neurological Institute, Montréal, QC, Canada
- Learning in Machines and Brains Program, CIFAR, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | | | | | - Konrad P Kording
- Learning in Machines and Brains Program, CIFAR, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Bioengineering, Neuroscience, University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, PA, USA
| | | | | | | | - Tim C Kietzmann
- Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, Germany
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Choung OH, Gordillo D, Roinishvili M, Brand A, Herzog MH, Chkonia E. Intact and deficient contextual processing in schizophrenia patients. Schizophr Res Cogn 2022; 30:100265. [PMID: 36119400 PMCID: PMC9477851 DOI: 10.1016/j.scog.2022.100265] [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: 05/07/2022] [Revised: 07/09/2022] [Accepted: 07/09/2022] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Schizophrenia patients are known to have deficits in contextual vision. However, results are often very mixed. In some paradigms, patients do not take the context into account and, hence, perform more veridically than healthy controls. In other paradigms, context deteriorates performance much more strongly in patients compared to healthy controls. These mixed results may be explained by differences in the paradigms as well as by small or biased samples, given the large heterogeneity of patients' deficits. Here, we show that mixed results may also come from idiosyncrasies of the stimuli used because in variants of the same visual paradigm, tested with the same participants, we found intact and deficient processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Oh-Hyeon Choung
- Laboratory of Psychophysics, Brain Mind Institute, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
- Corresponding author. http://lpsy.epfl.ch
| | - Dario Gordillo
- Laboratory of Psychophysics, Brain Mind Institute, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Maya Roinishvili
- Laboratory of Vision Physiology, Ivane Beritashvili Centre of Experimental Biomedicine, Tbilisi, Georgia
- Institute of Cognitive Neurosciences, Free University of Tbilisi, Tbilisi, Georgia
| | - Andreas Brand
- Laboratory of Psychophysics, Brain Mind Institute, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Michael H. Herzog
- Laboratory of Psychophysics, Brain Mind Institute, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Eka Chkonia
- Department of Psychiatry, Tbilisi State Medical University, Tbilisi, Georgia
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Herzog MH, Sayim B. Crowding: Recent advances and perspectives. J Vis 2022; 22:15. [DOI: 10.1167/jov.22.12.15] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Michael H. Herzog
- Laboratory of Psychophysics, Brain Mind Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Bilge Sayim
- Sciences Cognitives et Sciences Affectives (SCALab), CNRS, UMR 9193, University of Lille, Lille, France
- Institute of Psychology, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
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Rummens K, Sayim B. Multidimensional feature interactions in visual crowding: When configural cues eliminate the polarity advantage. J Vis 2022; 22:2. [PMID: 35503508 PMCID: PMC9078080 DOI: 10.1167/jov.22.6.2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/01/2021] [Accepted: 03/21/2022] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Crowding occurs when surrounding objects (flankers) impair target perception. A key property of crowding is the weaker interference when target and flankers strongly differ on a given dimension. For instance, identification of a target letter is usually superior with flankers of opposite versus the same contrast polarity as the target (the "polarity advantage"). High performance when target-flanker similarity is low has been attributed to the ungrouping of target and flankers. Here, we show that configural cues can override the usual advantage of low target-flanker similarity, and strong target-flanker grouping can reduce - instead of exacerbate - crowding. In Experiment 1, observers were presented with line triplets in the periphery and reported the tilt (left or right) of the central line. Target and flankers had the same (uniform condition) or opposite contrast polarity (alternating condition). Flanker configurations were either upright (||), unidirectionally tilted (\\ or //), or bidirectionally tilted (\/ or /\). Upright flankers yielded stronger crowding than unidirectional flankers, and weaker crowding than bidirectional flankers. Importantly, our results revealed a clear interaction between contrast polarity and flanker configuration. Triplets with upright and bidirectional flankers, but not unidirectional flankers, showed the polarity advantage. In Experiments 2 and 3, we showed that emergent features and redundancy masking (i.e. the reduction of the number of perceived items in repeating configurations) made it easier to discriminate between uniform triplets when flanker tilts were unidirectional (but not when bidirectional). We propose that the spatial configurations of uniform triplets with unidirectional flankers provided sufficient task-relevant information to enable a similar performance as with alternating triplets: strong-target flanker grouping alleviated crowding. We suggest that features which modulate crowding strength can interact non-additively, limiting the validity of typical crowding rules to contexts where only single, independent dimensions determine the effects of target-flanker similarity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Koen Rummens
- University of Bern, Institute of Psychology, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Bilge Sayim
- University of Bern, Institute of Psychology, Bern, Switzerland
- Université de Lille, CNRS, UMR 9193 - SCALab - Sciences Cognitives et Sciences Affectives, Lille, France
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Bornet A, Choung OH, Doerig A, Whitney D, Herzog MH, Manassi M. Global and high-level effects in crowding cannot be predicted by either high-dimensional pooling or target cueing. J Vis 2021; 21:10. [PMID: 34812839 PMCID: PMC8626847 DOI: 10.1167/jov.21.12.10] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2021] [Accepted: 09/30/2021] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
In visual crowding, the perception of a target deteriorates in the presence of nearby flankers. Traditionally, target-flanker interactions have been considered as local, mostly deleterious, low-level, and feature specific, occurring when information is pooled along the visual processing hierarchy. Recently, a vast literature of high-level effects in crowding (grouping effects and face-holistic crowding in particular) led to a different understanding of crowding, as a global, complex, and multilevel phenomenon that cannot be captured or explained by simple pooling models. It was recently argued that these high-level effects may still be captured by more sophisticated pooling models, such as the Texture Tiling model (TTM). Unlike simple pooling models, the high-dimensional pooling stage of the TTM preserves rich information about a crowded stimulus and, in principle, this information may be sufficient to drive high-level and global aspects of crowding. In addition, it was proposed that grouping effects in crowding may be explained by post-perceptual target cueing. Here, we extensively tested the predictions of the TTM on the results of six different studies that highlighted high-level effects in crowding. Our results show that the TTM cannot explain any of these high-level effects, and that the behavior of the model is equivalent to a simple pooling model. In addition, we show that grouping effects in crowding cannot be predicted by post-perceptual factors, such as target cueing. Taken together, these results reinforce once more the idea that complex target-flanker interactions determine crowding and that crowding occurs at multiple levels of the visual hierarchy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alban Bornet
- Laboratory of Psychophysics, Brain Mind Institute, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Oh-Hyeon Choung
- Laboratory of Psychophysics, Brain Mind Institute, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Adrien Doerig
- Laboratory of Psychophysics, Brain Mind Institute, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - David Whitney
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA
- Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA
- Vision Science Group, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA
| | - Michael H Herzog
- Laboratory of Psychophysics, Brain Mind Institute, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Mauro Manassi
- School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, King's College, Aberdeen, UK
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