Revealing Detail along the Visual Hierarchy: Neural Clustering Preserves Acuity from V1 to V4

When observers view a perceptually bistable stimulus, their perception changes stochastically. Various studies have shown across-observer correlations in the percept durations for different bistable stimuli including binocular rivalry stimuli and bistable moving plaids. Previous work on binocular rivalry posits that neural inhibition in the visual hierarchy is a factor involved in the perceptual fluctuations in that paradigm. Here, in order to investigate whether between-observer variability in cortical inhibition underlies correlated percept durations between binocular rivalry and bistable moving plaid perception, we used center-surround suppression as a behavioral measure of cortical inhibition. We recruited 217 participants in a test battery that included bistable perception paradigms as well as a center-surround suppression paradigm. While we were able to successfully replicate the correlations between binocular rivalry and bistable moving plaid perception, we did not find a correlation between center-surround suppression strength and percept durations for any form of bistable perception. Moreover, the results from a mediation analysis indicate that center-surround suppression is not the mediating factor in the correlation between binocular rivalry and bistable moving plaids. These results do not support the idea that cortical inhibition can explain the between-observer correlation in mean percept duration between binocular rivalry and bistable moving plaid perception.

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A Study on the Visual Hierarchy of Character Graphics in TV Home Shopping

JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY DESIGN CULTURE ◽

10.18208/ksdc.2021.27.2.361 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 27 (2) ◽

pp. 361-373

Author(s):

Seung Jae Lee ◽

Tae Yim Kang

Keyword(s):

Home Shopping ◽

Visual Hierarchy

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MemCat: A new category-based image set quantified on memorability

10.31234/osf.io/64xfa ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Lore Goetschalckx ◽

Johan Wagemans

Keyword(s):

Neural Networks ◽

Memory Task ◽

Semantic Category ◽

Source Image ◽

Behavioral Correlates ◽

Semantic Categories ◽

Visual Hierarchy ◽

Image Set ◽

High Level ◽

Repeat Detection

This is a preprint. Please find the published, peer reviewed version of the paper here: https://peerj.com/articles/8169/. Images differ in their memorability in consistent ways across observers. What makes an image memorable is not fully understood to date. Most of the current insight is in terms of high-level semantic aspects, related to the content. However, research still shows consistent differences within semantic categories, suggesting a role for factors at other levels of processing in the visual hierarchy. To aid investigations into this role as well as contributions to the understanding of image memorability more generally, we present MemCat. MemCat is a category-based image set, consisting of 10K images representing five broader, memorability-relevant categories (animal, food, landscape, sports, and vehicle) and further divided into subcategories (e.g., bear). They were sampled from existing source image sets that offer bounding box annotations or more detailed segmentation masks. We collected memorability scores for all 10K images, each score based on the responses of on average 99 participants in a repeat-detection memory task. Replicating previous research, the collected memorability scores show high levels of consistency across observers. Currently, MemCat is the second largest memorability image set and the largest offering a category-based structure. MemCat can be used to study the factors underlying the variability in image memorability, including the variability within semantic categories. In addition, it offers a new benchmark dataset for the automatic prediction of memorability scores (e.g., with convolutional neural networks). Finally, MemCat allows to study neural and behavioral correlates of memorability while controlling for semantic category.

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Object manifold geometry across the mouse cortical visual hierarchy

10.1101/2020.08.20.258798 ◽

2020 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Emmanouil Froudarakis ◽

Uri Cohen ◽

Maria Diamantaki ◽

Edgar Y. Walker ◽

Jacob Reimer ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Home Cage ◽

Object Representations ◽

Object Identity ◽

Population Code ◽

Neuronal Populations ◽

Linear Separability ◽

Visual Hierarchy ◽

Visual Areas ◽

Invariant Object Recognition ◽

Object Coding

AbstractDespite variations in appearance we robustly recognize objects. Neuronal populations responding to objects presented under varying conditions form object manifolds and hierarchically organized visual areas are thought to untangle pixel intensities into linearly decodable object representations. However, the associated changes in the geometry of object manifolds along the cortex remain unknown. Using home cage training we showed that mice are capable of invariant object recognition. We simultaneously recorded the responses of thousands of neurons to measure the information about object identity available across the visual cortex and found that lateral visual areas LM, LI and AL carry more linearly decodable object identity information compared to other visual areas. We applied the theory of linear separability of manifolds, and found that the increase in classification capacity is associated with a decrease in the dimension and radius of the object manifold, identifying features of the population code that enable invariant object coding.

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IWEARUP.COM USER INTERFACE ANALYSIS

VISUALITA ◽

10.33375/vslt.v7i2.1459 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 7 (2) ◽

pp. 31-44

Author(s):

Irma Rochmawati

Keyword(s):

User Interface ◽

Web Design ◽

Website Design ◽

Interface Analysis ◽

Instrumental Case Study ◽

Fashion Products ◽

Visual Hierarchy ◽

Instrumental Case ◽

Marketing Tool

IWEARUP.COM is a website that is an e-commerce based. It contains information about buying, selling, distributing, and marketing fashion products. A business website is an example of using design as a marketing tool. Display of charming website with design is an attraction. However, a good website design must be able to display information clearly. Especially how to make the interface possible as it is not confused with the information displayed. Poor interfaces affect the users productivity or experience in visiting a website. This is a visual hierarchy which is the most important principles behind every website design. With an instrumental case study of the approach to produce conclusions that can be applied in designing e-commerce-based website. The goal is to make the website design in line with the content that will increase the website design and increase knowledge about the visual hierarchy of web design and its relation to the user interface.

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Idiosyncratic Perception: A Link Between Acuity, Perceived Position, and Apparent Size

10.1101/2020.06.09.143081 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Zixuan Wang ◽

Yuki Murai ◽

David Whitney

Keyword(s):

Visual Field ◽

Visual Processing ◽

Human Perception ◽

Visual Space ◽

Apparent Size ◽

Matching Task ◽

Object Size ◽

Vernier Acuity ◽

Visual Hierarchy ◽

Different Levels

AbstractPerceiving the positions of objects is a prerequisite for most other visual and visuomotor functions, but human perception of object position varies from one individual to the next. The source of these individual differences in perceived position and their perceptual consequences are unknown. Here, we tested whether idiosyncratic biases in the underlying representation of visual space propagate across different levels of visual processing. In Experiment 1, using a position matching task, we found stable, observer-specific compressions and expansions within local regions throughout the visual field. We then measured Vernier acuity (Experiment 2) and perceived size of objects (Experiment 3) across the visual field and found that individualized spatial distortions were closely associated with variations in both visual acuity and apparent object size. Our results reveal idiosyncratic biases in perceived position and size, originating from a heterogeneous spatial resolution that carries across the visual hierarchy.

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Changing what you see by changing what you know: the role of attention

10.31234/osf.io/5ak8v ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Gary Lupyan

Keyword(s):

Perceptual Content ◽

Current Evidence ◽

Cognitive State ◽

Perceptual Process ◽

Cognitive Influences ◽

Cognitive States ◽

Visual Hierarchy ◽

Visual Inputs ◽

Perceptual Representations ◽

Perceptual Systems

Attending is a cognitive process that incorporates a person’s knowledge, goals, and expectations. What we perceive when we attend to one thing is different from what we perceive when we attend to something else. Yet, it is often argued that attentional effects do not count as evidence that perception is influenced by cognition. I investigate two arguments often given to justify excluding attention. The first is arguing that attention is a post-perceptual process reflecting selection between fully constructed perceptual representations. The second is arguing that attention as a pre-perceptual process that simply changes the input to encapsulated perceptual systems. Both of these arguments are highly problematic. Although some attentional effects can indeed be construed as post-perceptual, others operate by changing perceptual content across the entire visual hierarchy. Although there is a natural analogy between spatial attention and a change of input, the analogy falls apart when we consider other forms of attention. After dispelling these arguments, I make a case for thinking of attention not as a confound, but as one of the mechanisms by which cognitive states affect perception by going through cases in which the same or similar visual inputs are perceived differently depending on the observer’s cognitive state, and instances where cuing an observer using language affects what one sees. Lastly, I provide two compelling counter-examples to the critique that although cognitive influences on perception can be demonstrated in the laboratory, it is impossible to really experience them for oneself in a phenomenologically compelling way. Taken together, the current evidence strongly supports the thesis that what we know routinely influences what we see, that the same sensory input can be perceived differently depending on the current cognitive state of the viewer, and that phenomenologically salient demonstrations are possible if certain conditions are met.

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Top-down coordination of local cortical state during selective attention

10.1101/2020.03.26.009365 ◽

2020 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jochem van Kempen ◽

Marc A. Gieselmann ◽

Michael Boyd ◽

Nicholas A. Steinmetz ◽

Tirin Moore ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Selective Attention ◽

Cortical Excitability ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Global Changes ◽

Top Down ◽

Visual Hierarchy ◽

Tightly Coupled ◽

State Coordination ◽

And Behavior ◽

Spontaneous Fluctuations

AbstractSpontaneous fluctuations in cortical excitability influence sensory processing and behavior. These fluctuations, long known to reflect global changes in cortical state, were recently found to be modulated locally within a retinotopic map during spatially selective attention. We found that periods of vigorous (On) and faint (Off) spiking activity, the signature of cortical state fluctuations, were coordinated across brain areas along the visual hierarchy and tightly coupled to their retinotopic alignment. During top-down attention, this interareal coordination was enhanced and progressed along the reverse cortical hierarchy. The extent of local state coordination between areas was predictive of behavioral performance. Our results show that cortical state dynamics are shared across brain regions, modulated by cognitive demands and relevant for behavior.One Sentence SummaryInterareal coordination of local cortical state is retinotopically precise and progresses in a reverse hierarchical manner during selective attention.

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