Effects of grouping in contextual modulation

Michael H. Herzog () and Manfred Fahle
Additional contact information
Michael H. Herzog: Human Neurobiology, University of Bremen
Manfred Fahle: Human Neurobiology, University of Bremen

Nature, 2002, vol. 415, issue 6870, 433-436

Abstract: Abstract Perception of a visual target and the responses of cortical neurons can be strongly influenced by a context surrounding the target1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27. This observation relates to the fundamental issue of how cortical neurons code objects of the external world. In high-contrast regimes, embedding a target in an iso-oriented context reduces neural responses and deteriorates performance in psychophysical experiments. Performance from orthogonal surrounds is better than that from iso-oriented ones1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17. This contextual interference is often postulated to be caused by long- or short-range interactions between neurons tuned to orientation. Here we show, using a new illusion called ‘shine-through’ as a sensitive psychophysical probe, that the orientation difference between target and context does not determine performance. Instead, contextual modulation depends on the overall spatial structure of the context. We propose that contextual suppression vanishes if the contextual elements are grouped to an independent and coherent object.

Date: 2002
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/415433a Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:415:y:2002:i:6870:d:10.1038_415433a

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/415433a

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().