Processing local signals into global patterns.

Full Abstract

Perceptual organization or grouping is one of the central issues in vision research. Recent reports in the neuroimaging literature suggest that perceptual organization is mediated by distributed visual areas that range from the primary visual cortex (V1) to higher visual areas, depending on the availability of grouping cues and on the weight of contribution of each visual area. Evidence suggests that grouping by proximity and collinearity, and also perhaps filling-in, involve V1, whereas grouping by similarity and symmetry seems to depend on activation of higher visual areas. Further studies should include deliberate controls for confounding factors such as attentional artifacts and radial orientation bias, to clarify how spatiotemporal information in visual areas is integrated to give rise to perceptual organization.

Author information

Author/s: Sasaki, Yuka (Y);

Affiliation: Athinoula A Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 149 13th Street, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA. yuka(-atsign-)nmr.ngh.harvard.edu

Grants: P41RR14075 (Agency:NCRR NIH HHS)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't; Review

Journal: Current opinion in neurobiology (Curr Opin Neurobiol), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2007-Apr; vol 17 (issue 2) : pp 132-9

Dates: Created 2007/04/20; Completed 2007/07/10; Revised 2008/11/21;

PMID: 17369036, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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