Dataset Information

Flexible contextual modulation of naturalistic texture perception in peripheral vision.

ABSTRACT: Peripheral vision comprises most of our visual field, and is essential in guiding visual behavior. Its characteristic capabilities and limitations, which distinguish it from foveal vision, have been explained by the most influential theory of peripheral vision as the product of representing the visual input using summary statistics. Despite its success, this account may provide a limited understanding of peripheral vision, because it neglects processes of perceptual grouping and segmentation. To test this hypothesis, we studied how contextual modulation, namely the modulation of the perception of a stimulus by its surrounds, interacts with segmentation in human peripheral vision. We used naturalistic textures, which are directly related to summary-statistics representations. We show that segmentation cues affect contextual modulation, and that this is not captured by our implementation of the summary-statistics model. We then characterize the effects of different texture statistics on contextual modulation, providing guidance for extending the model, as well as for probing neural mechanisms of peripheral vision.

SUBMITTER: Herrera-Esposito D

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7794279 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Flexible contextual modulation of naturalistic texture perception in peripheral vision.

Herrera-Esposito Daniel D Coen-Cagli Ruben R Gomez-Sena Leonel L

Journal of vision 20210101 1

Peripheral vision comprises most of our visual field, and is essential in guiding visual behavior. Its characteristic capabilities and limitations, which distinguish it from foveal vision, have been explained by the most influential theory of peripheral vision as the product of representing the visual input using summary statistics. Despite its success, this account may provide a limited understanding of peripheral vision, because it neglects processes of perceptual grouping and segmentation. To ...[more]

PMID: 33393962

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Project description:Peripheral vision has different functional priorities for mammals than foveal vision. One of its roles is to monitor the environment while central vision is focused on the current task. Becoming distracted too easily would be counterproductive in this perspective, so the brain should react to behaviourally relevant changes. Gist processing is good for this purpose, and it is therefore not surprising that evidence from both functional brain imaging and behavioural research suggests a tendency to generalize and blend information in the periphery. This may be caused by the balance of perceptual influence in the periphery between bottom-up (i.e., sensory information) and top-down (i.e., prior or contextual information) processing channels. Here, we investigated this interaction behaviourally using a peripheral numerosity discrimination task with top-down and bottom-up manipulations. Participants compared numerosity between the left and right peripheries of a screen. Each periphery was divided into a centre and a surrounding area, only one of which was a task relevant target region. Our top-down task modulation was the instruction which area to attend - centre or surround. We varied the signal strength by altering the stimuli durations i.e., the amount of information presented/processed (as a combined bottom-up and recurrent top-down feedback factor). We found that numerosity perceived in target regions was affected by contextual information in neighbouring (but irrelevant) areas. This effect appeared as soon as stimulus duration allowed the task to be reliably performed and persisted even at the longest duration (1 s). We compared the pattern of results with an ideal-observer model and found a qualitative difference in the way centre and surround areas interacted perceptually in the periphery. When participants reported on the central area, the irrelevant surround would affect the response as a weighted combination - consistent with the idea of a receptive field focused in the target area to which irrelevant surround stimulation leaks in. When participants report on surround, we can best describe the response with a model in which occasionally the attention switches from task relevant surround to task irrelevant centre - consistent with a selection model of two competing streams of information. Overall our results show that the influence of spatial context in the periphery is mandatory but task dependent.

Dataset Information

Flexible contextual modulation of naturalistic texture perception in peripheral vision.

Publications

Flexible contextual modulation of naturalistic texture perception in peripheral vision.

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