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An Adaptable Metric Shapes Perceptual Space.

ABSTRACT: How do we derive a sense of the separation of points in the world within a space-variant visual system? Visual directions are thought to be coded directly by a process referred to as local sign, in which a neuron acts as a labeled line for the perceived direction associated with its activation [1, 2]. The separations of visual directions, however, are not given, nor are they directly related to the separations of signals on the receptive surface or in the brain, which are modified by retinal and cortical magnification, respectively [3]. To represent the separation of directions veridically, the corresponding neural signals need to be scaled in some way. We considered this scaling process may be influenced by adaptation. Here, we describe a novel adaptation paradigm, which can alter both apparent spatial separation and size. We measured the perceived separation of two dots and the size of geometric figures after adaptation to random dot patterns. We show that adapting to high-density texture not only increases the apparent sparseness (average element separation) of a lower-density pattern, as expected [4], but paradoxically, it reduces the apparent separation of dot pairs and induces apparent shrinkage of geometric form. This demonstrates for the first time a contrary linkage between perceived density and perceived extent. Separation and size appear to be expressed relative to a variable spatial metric whose properties, while not directly observable, are revealed by reductions in both apparent size and texture density.

SUBMITTER: Hisakata R

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4963211 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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An Adaptable Metric Shapes Perceptual Space.

Hisakata Rumi R Nishida Shin'ya S Johnston Alan A

Current biology : CB 20160714 14

How do we derive a sense of the separation of points in the world within a space-variant visual system? Visual directions are thought to be coded directly by a process referred to as local sign, in which a neuron acts as a labeled line for the perceived direction associated with its activation [1, 2]. The separations of visual directions, however, are not given, nor are they directly related to the separations of signals on the receptive surface or in the brain, which are modified by retinal and ...[more]

PMID: 27426520

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Project description:A perceptual space is a mental workspace of points in a sensory domain that supports similarity and difference judgments and enables further processing such as classification and naming. Perceptual spaces are present across sensory modalities; examples include colors, faces, auditory textures, and odors. Color is perhaps the best-studied perceptual space, but it is atypical in two respects. First, the dimensions of color space are directly linked to the three cone absorption spectra, but the dimensions of generic perceptual spaces are not as readily traceable to single-neuron properties. Second, generic perceptual spaces have more than three dimensions. This is important because representing each distinguishable point in a high-dimensional space by a separate neuron or population is unwieldy; combinatorial strategies may be needed to overcome this hurdle. To study the representation of a complex perceptual space, we focused on a well-characterized 10-dimensional domain of visual textures. Within this domain, we determine perceptual distances in a threshold task (segmentation) and a suprathreshold task (border salience comparison). In N=4 human observers, we find both quantitative and qualitative differences between these sets of measurements. Quantitatively, observers' segmentation thresholds were inconsistent with their uncertainty determined from border salience comparisons. Qualitatively, segmentation thresholds suggested that distances are determined by a coordinate representation with Euclidean geometry. Border salience comparisons, in contrast, indicated a global curvature of the space, and that distances are determined by activity patterns across broadly tuned elements. Thus, our results indicate two representations of this perceptual space, and suggest that they use differing combinatorial strategies.To move from sensory signals to decisions and actions, the brain carries out a sequence of transformations. An important stage in this process is the construction of a "perceptual space" - an internal workspace of sensory information that captures similarities and differences, and enables further processing, such as classification and naming. Perceptual spaces for color, faces, visual and haptic textures and shapes, sounds, and odors (among others) are known to exist. How such spaces are represented is at present unknown. Here, using visual textures as a model, we investigate this. Psychophysical measurements suggest roles for two combinatorial strategies: one based on projections onto coordinate-like axes, and one based on patterns of activity across broadly tuned elements scattered throughout the space.

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An Adaptable Metric Shapes Perceptual Space.

Publications

An Adaptable Metric Shapes Perceptual Space.

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