Perceptual grouping and the interactions between visual cortical areas

Scott O. Murray; Paul Schrater; Daniel Kersten

doi:10.1016/j.neunet.2004.03.010

Perceptual grouping and the interactions between visual cortical areas

Scott O. Murray, Paul Schrater, Daniel Kersten

Psychology (Twin Cities)

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

117 Scopus citations

Abstract

Visual perception involves the grouping of individual elements into coherent patterns, such as object representations, that reduce the descriptive complexity of a visual scene. The computational and physiological bases of this perceptual remain poorly understood. We discuss recent fMRI evidence from our laboratory where we measured activity in a higher object processing area (LOC), and in primary visual cortex (V1) in response to visual elements that were either grouped into objects or randomly arranged. We observed significant activity increases in the LOC and concurrent reductions of activity in V1 when elements formed coherent shapes, suggesting that activity in early visual areas is reduced as a result of grouping processes performed in higher areas. In light of these results we review related empirical findings of context-dependent changes in activity, recent neurophysiology research related to cortical feedback, and computational models that incorporate feedback operations. We suggest that feedback from high-level visual areas reduces activity in lower areas in order to simplify the description of a visual image - consistent with both predictive coding models of perception and probabilistic notions of 'explaining away.'

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	695-705
Number of pages	11
Journal	Neural Networks
Volume	17
Issue number	5-6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neunet.2004.03.010
State	Published - 2004

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Portions of this work were reported earlier in Murray et al. (2002) and at Human Brain Mapping (Shen, Kersten, and Ugurbil, 1999), ARVO (Kersten, Shen, Ugurbil, and Schrater, 1999) and Soc. Neurosci. (Murray Olshausen, and Woods, 2001) conferences. Supported by NIH R01 EY015261, NIH P41 RR08079, pre-doctoral NRSA MH-12791 and post-doctoral NRSA EY015342-01 (S.O.M.), NSF SBR-9631682 (D.K.), NIH MH-57921 (B.A.O.), NIH MH-41544 and VA Research Service (D.L.W.). We thank Peter Battaglia for helpful comments.

Keywords

Bayesian
Feedback
Grouping
Predictive coding
Probabilistic models

Access

10.1016/j.neunet.2004.03.010

OpenUrl availability

Full text

Cite this

@article{99c43098fea1460ca5cd99a78a6b0c7e,

title = "Perceptual grouping and the interactions between visual cortical areas",

abstract = "Visual perception involves the grouping of individual elements into coherent patterns, such as object representations, that reduce the descriptive complexity of a visual scene. The computational and physiological bases of this perceptual remain poorly understood. We discuss recent fMRI evidence from our laboratory where we measured activity in a higher object processing area (LOC), and in primary visual cortex (V1) in response to visual elements that were either grouped into objects or randomly arranged. We observed significant activity increases in the LOC and concurrent reductions of activity in V1 when elements formed coherent shapes, suggesting that activity in early visual areas is reduced as a result of grouping processes performed in higher areas. In light of these results we review related empirical findings of context-dependent changes in activity, recent neurophysiology research related to cortical feedback, and computational models that incorporate feedback operations. We suggest that feedback from high-level visual areas reduces activity in lower areas in order to simplify the description of a visual image - consistent with both predictive coding models of perception and probabilistic notions of 'explaining away.'",

keywords = "Bayesian, Feedback, Grouping, Predictive coding, Probabilistic models",

author = "Murray, {Scott O.} and Paul Schrater and Daniel Kersten",

note = "Funding Information: Portions of this work were reported earlier in Murray et al. (2002) and at Human Brain Mapping (Shen, Kersten, and Ugurbil, 1999), ARVO (Kersten, Shen, Ugurbil, and Schrater, 1999) and Soc. Neurosci. (Murray Olshausen, and Woods, 2001) conferences. Supported by NIH R01 EY015261, NIH P41 RR08079, pre-doctoral NRSA MH-12791 and post-doctoral NRSA EY015342-01 (S.O.M.), NSF SBR-9631682 (D.K.), NIH MH-57921 (B.A.O.), NIH MH-41544 and VA Research Service (D.L.W.). We thank Peter Battaglia for helpful comments.",

year = "2004",

doi = "10.1016/j.neunet.2004.03.010",

language = "English (US)",

volume = "17",

pages = "695--705",

journal = "Neural Networks",

issn = "0893-6080",

publisher = "Elsevier Limited",

number = "5-6",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Perceptual grouping and the interactions between visual cortical areas

AU - Murray, Scott O.

AU - Schrater, Paul

AU - Kersten, Daniel

N1 - Funding Information: Portions of this work were reported earlier in Murray et al. (2002) and at Human Brain Mapping (Shen, Kersten, and Ugurbil, 1999), ARVO (Kersten, Shen, Ugurbil, and Schrater, 1999) and Soc. Neurosci. (Murray Olshausen, and Woods, 2001) conferences. Supported by NIH R01 EY015261, NIH P41 RR08079, pre-doctoral NRSA MH-12791 and post-doctoral NRSA EY015342-01 (S.O.M.), NSF SBR-9631682 (D.K.), NIH MH-57921 (B.A.O.), NIH MH-41544 and VA Research Service (D.L.W.). We thank Peter Battaglia for helpful comments.

PY - 2004

Y1 - 2004

N2 - Visual perception involves the grouping of individual elements into coherent patterns, such as object representations, that reduce the descriptive complexity of a visual scene. The computational and physiological bases of this perceptual remain poorly understood. We discuss recent fMRI evidence from our laboratory where we measured activity in a higher object processing area (LOC), and in primary visual cortex (V1) in response to visual elements that were either grouped into objects or randomly arranged. We observed significant activity increases in the LOC and concurrent reductions of activity in V1 when elements formed coherent shapes, suggesting that activity in early visual areas is reduced as a result of grouping processes performed in higher areas. In light of these results we review related empirical findings of context-dependent changes in activity, recent neurophysiology research related to cortical feedback, and computational models that incorporate feedback operations. We suggest that feedback from high-level visual areas reduces activity in lower areas in order to simplify the description of a visual image - consistent with both predictive coding models of perception and probabilistic notions of 'explaining away.'

AB - Visual perception involves the grouping of individual elements into coherent patterns, such as object representations, that reduce the descriptive complexity of a visual scene. The computational and physiological bases of this perceptual remain poorly understood. We discuss recent fMRI evidence from our laboratory where we measured activity in a higher object processing area (LOC), and in primary visual cortex (V1) in response to visual elements that were either grouped into objects or randomly arranged. We observed significant activity increases in the LOC and concurrent reductions of activity in V1 when elements formed coherent shapes, suggesting that activity in early visual areas is reduced as a result of grouping processes performed in higher areas. In light of these results we review related empirical findings of context-dependent changes in activity, recent neurophysiology research related to cortical feedback, and computational models that incorporate feedback operations. We suggest that feedback from high-level visual areas reduces activity in lower areas in order to simplify the description of a visual image - consistent with both predictive coding models of perception and probabilistic notions of 'explaining away.'

KW - Bayesian

KW - Feedback

KW - Grouping

KW - Predictive coding

KW - Probabilistic models

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=4344620180&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=4344620180&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.neunet.2004.03.010

DO - 10.1016/j.neunet.2004.03.010

M3 - Article

C2 - 15288893

AN - SCOPUS:4344620180

SN - 0893-6080

VL - 17

SP - 695

EP - 705

JO - Neural Networks

JF - Neural Networks

IS - 5-6

ER -

Perceptual grouping and the interactions between visual cortical areas

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

Access

OpenUrl availability

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this