A functional angle on some after-effects in cortical vision

The question of how our brains and those of other animals code sensory information is of fundamental importance to neuroscience research. Visual illusions offer valuable insight into the mechanisms of perceptual coding. One such illusion, the tilt after-effect (TAE), has been studied extensively sin...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the Royal Society. B, Biological sciences Biological sciences, 2000-09, Vol.267 (1454), p.1705-1710
Main Authors: Clifford, Colin W. G., Wenderoth, Peter, Spehar, Branka
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adaptation, Ocular
Afterimage - physiology
Color Perception - physiology
Color vision
Colour
Computational Model
Decorrelation
Humans
Illusion
Mathematical vectors
Mental stimulation
Models, Biological
Motion
Neurons
Observational research
Pattern Recognition, Visual - physiology
Spatial models
Spatial perception
Tilt After-Effect
Tilt Illusion
Visual cortex
Visual Cortex - physiology
Visual perception
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Summary:The question of how our brains and those of other animals code sensory information is of fundamental importance to neuroscience research. Visual illusions offer valuable insight into the mechanisms of perceptual coding. One such illusion, the tilt after-effect (TAE), has been studied extensively since the 1930s, yet a full explanation of the effect has remained elusive. Here, we put forward an explanation of the TAE in terms of a functional role for adaptation in the visual cortex. The proposed model accounts not only for the phenomenology of the TAE, but also for spatial interactions in perceived tilt and the effects of adaptation on the perception of direction of motion and colour. We discuss the implications of the model for understanding the effects of adaptation and surround stimulation on the response properties of cortical neurons.
ISSN:0962-8452
1471-2954
DOI:10.1098/rspb.2000.1198