Contributions of Different Spatial Modulations of Brightness Gradients to the Control of Visual Attention

The targets of visual selective attention are the most informative parts of images. All new data in recent years have pointed to the importance of second-order features – spatial inhomogeneities in brightness gradients – in solving a variety of visual tasks. We addressed the problem of determining h...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Neuroscience and behavioral physiology 2020-10, Vol.50 (8), p.1035-1042
Main Authors: Babenko, V. V., Yavna, D. V., Rodionov, E. G.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attention
Behavioral Sciences
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Biomedicine
Brightness
Frequency dependence
Neurobiology
Neurosciences
Orientation behavior
Saccadic eye movements
Visual discrimination
Visual perception
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The targets of visual selective attention are the most informative parts of images. All new data in recent years have pointed to the importance of second-order features – spatial inhomogeneities in brightness gradients – in solving a variety of visual tasks. We addressed the problem of determining how priorities of second-order features are distributed from the point of view of attracting attention. All information from initial images of objects other than modulations of specific modalities was removed. As a result, each object was represented in three versions: images consisting of modulations of contrast, orientation, and spatial frequency. In experiment 1, images formed from modulations of different dimensionalities but with the same spatial frequency competed for attention. In experiment 2, modulations of the same dimensionality but different frequencies were used. The direction of the subject’s attention was evaluated by recording eye movements. The first saccade after stimulus onset was assessed. The observations showed that in the object orientation discrimination task using pairs of sequential stimuli, images formed from modulations of contrast and orientation of lower spatial frequency had a significant advantage in competing for attention. This result is explained by the notion that in competing for attention, areas of images with greater amplitude of brightness gradient modulation had the advantage in competing for attention.
ISSN:0097-0549
1573-899X
DOI:10.1007/s11055-020-00994-z