Neuronal response to texture- and contrast-defined boundaries in early visual cortex.

Full Abstract

Natural scenes contain a variety of visual cues that facilitate boundary perception (e.g., luminance, contrast, and texture). Here we explore whether single neurons in early visual cortex can process both contrast and texture cues. We recorded neural responses in cat A18 to both illusory contours formed by abutting gratings (ICs, texture-defined) and contrast-modulated gratings (CMs, contrast-defined). We found that if a neuron responded to one of the two stimuli, it also responded to the other. These neurons signaled similar contour orientation, spatial frequency, and movement direction of the two stimuli. A given neuron also exhibited similar selectivity for spatial frequency of the fine, stationary grating components (carriers) of the stimuli. These results suggest that the cue-invariance of early cortical neurons extends to different kinds of texture or contrast cues, and might arise from a common nonlinear mechanism.

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Author information

Author/s: Song, Yuning (Y); Baker, Curtis L (CL);

Affiliation: McGill Vision Research Unit, Department of Ophthalmology, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Visual neuroscience (Vis Neurosci), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: -2007 Jan-Feb; vol 24 (issue 1) : pp 65-77

Dates: Created 2007/04/13; Completed 2007/10/01;

PMID: 17430610, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Animals
Cats
Contrast Sensitivity - physiology
Craniotomy
Electrophysiology - methods
Illusions

Microelectrodes
Models, Animal
Neurons - physiology
Photic Stimulation
Reaction Time
Visual Cortex - growth & development; physiology

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