3,666 research outputs found
Cortical Dynamics of Visual Motion Perception: Short-Range and Long Range Apparent Motion
This article describes further evidence for a new neural network theory of biological motion perception that is called a Motion Boundary Contour System. This theory clarifies why parallel streams Vl-> V2 and Vl-> MT exist for static form and motion form processing among the areas Vl, V2, and MT of visual cortex. The Motion Boundary Contour System consists of several parallel copies, such that each copy is activated by a different range of receptive field sizes. Each copy is further subdivided into two hierarchically organized subsystems: a Motion Oriented Contrast Filter, or MOC Filter, for preprocessing moving images; and a Cooperative-Competitive Feedback Loop, or CC Loop, for generating emergent boundary segmentations of the filtered signals. The present article uses the MOC Filter to explain a variety of classical and recent data about short-range and long-range apparent motion percepts that have not yet been explained by alternative models. These data include split motion; reverse-contrast gamma motion; delta motion; visual inertia; group motion in response to a reverse-contrast Ternus display at short interstimulus intervals; speed-up of motion velocity as interfiash distance increases or flash duration decreases; dependence of the transition from element motion to group motion on stimulus duration and size; various classical dependencies between flash duration, spatial separation, interstimulus interval, and motion threshold known as Korte's Laws; and dependence of motion strength on stimulus orientation and spatial frequency. These results supplement earlier explanations by the model of apparent motion data that other models have not explained; a recent proposed solution of the global aperture problem, including explanations of motion capture and induced motion; an explanation of how parallel cortical systems for static form perception and motion form perception may develop, including a demonstration that these parallel systems are variations on a common cortical design; an explanation of why the geometries of static form and motion form differ, in particular why opposite orientations differ by 90°, whereas opposite directions differ by 180°, and why a cortical stream Vl -> V2 -> MT is needed; and a summary of how the main properties of other motion perception models can be assimilated into different parts of the Motion Boundary Contour System design.Air Force Office of Scientific Research (90-0175); Army Research Office (DAAL-03-88-K0088); Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (AFOSR-90-0083); Hughes Aircraft Company (S1-903136
Neural Dynamics of Motion Perception: Direction Fields, Apertures, and Resonant Grouping
A neural network model of global motion segmentation by visual cortex is described. Called the Motion Boundary Contour System (BCS), the model clarifies how ambiguous local movements on a complex moving shape are actively reorganized into a coherent global motion signal. Unlike many previous researchers, we analyse how a coherent motion signal is imparted to all regions of a moving figure, not only to regions at which unambiguous motion signals exist. The model hereby suggests a solution to the global aperture problem. The Motion BCS describes how preprocessing of motion signals by a Motion Oriented Contrast Filter (MOC Filter) is joined to long-range cooperative grouping mechanisms in a Motion Cooperative-Competitive Loop (MOCC Loop) to control phenomena such as motion capture. The Motion BCS is computed in parallel with the Static BCS of Grossberg and Mingolla (1985a, 1985b, 1987). Homologous properties of the Motion BCS and the Static BCS, specialized to process movement directions and static orientations, respectively, support a unified explanation of many data about static form perception and motion form perception that have heretofore been unexplained or treated separately. Predictions about microscopic computational differences of the parallel cortical streams V1 --> MT and V1 --> V2 --> MT are made, notably the magnocellular thick stripe and parvocellular interstripe streams. It is shown how the Motion BCS can compute motion directions that may be synthesized from multiple orientations with opposite directions-of-contrast. Interactions of model simple cells, complex cells, hypercomplex cells, and bipole cells are described, with special emphasis given to new functional roles in direction disambiguation for endstopping at multiple processing stages and to the dynamic interplay of spatially short-range and long-range interactions.Air Force Office of Scientific Research (90-0175); Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (90-0083); Office of Naval Research (N00014-91-J-4100
Illusory Flow in Radiation from Accelerating Charge
In this paper we analyze the classical electromagnetic radiation of an
accelerating point charge moving on a straight line trajectory. Depending on
the duration of accelerations, rapidity distributions of photons emerge,
resembling the ones obtained in the framework of hydrodynamical models by
Landau or Bjorken. Detectable differences between our approach and spectra
obtained from hydrodynamical models occur at high transverse momenta and are
due to interference
Models of the SL9 Impacts II. Radiative-hydrodynamic Modeling of the Plume Splashback
We model the plume "splashback" phase of the SL9 collisions with Jupiter
using the ZEUS-3D hydrodynamic code. We modified the Zeus code to include gray
radiative transport, and we present validation tests. We couple the infalling
mass and momentum fluxes of SL9 plume material (from paper I) to a jovian
atmospheric model. A strong and complex shock structure results. The modeled
shock temperatures agree well with observations, and the structure and
evolution of the modeled shocks account for the appearance of high excitation
molecular line emission after the peak of the continuum light curve. The
splashback region cools by radial expansion as well as by radiation. The
morphology of our synthetic continuum light curves agree with observations over
a broad wavelength range (0.9 to 12 microns). A feature of our ballistic plume
is a shell of mass at the highest velocities, which we term the "vanguard".
Portions of the vanguard ejected on shallow trajectories produce a lateral
shock front, whose initial expansion accounts for the "third precursors" seen
in the 2-micron light curves of the larger impacts, and for hot methane
emission at early times. Continued propagation of this lateral shock
approximately reproduces the radii, propagation speed, and centroid positions
of the large rings observed at 3-4 microns by McGregor et al. The portion of
the vanguard ejected closer to the vertical falls back with high z-component
velocities just after maximum light, producing CO emission and the "flare" seen
at 0.9 microns. The model also produces secondary maxima ("bounces") whose
amplitudes and periods are in agreement with observations.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures (figs 3 and 4 in color), accepted for Ap.J.
latex, version including full figures at:
http://oobleck.tn.cornell.edu/jh/ast/papers/slplume2-20.ps.g
A cortical model of object perception based on Bayesian networks and belief propagation.
Evidence suggests that high-level feedback plays an important role in visual perception by shaping
the response in lower cortical levels (Sillito et al. 2006, Angelucci and Bullier 2003, Bullier
2001, Harrison et al. 2007). A notable example of this is reflected by the retinotopic activation
of V1 and V2 neurons in response to illusory contours, such as Kanizsa figures, which has been
reported in numerous studies (Maertens et al. 2008, Seghier and Vuilleumier 2006, Halgren et al.
2003, Lee 2003, Lee and Nguyen 2001). The illusory contour activity emerges first in lateral
occipital cortex (LOC), then in V2 and finally in V1, strongly suggesting that the response is
driven by feedback connections. Generative models and Bayesian belief propagation have been
suggested to provide a theoretical framework that can account for feedback connectivity, explain
psychophysical and physiological results, and map well onto the hierarchical distributed
cortical connectivity (Friston and Kiebel 2009, Dayan et al. 1995, Knill and Richards 1996,
Geisler and Kersten 2002, Yuille and Kersten 2006, Deneve 2008a, George and Hawkins 2009,
Lee and Mumford 2003, Rao 2006, Litvak and Ullman 2009, Steimer et al. 2009).
The present study explores the role of feedback in object perception, taking as a starting point
the HMAX model, a biologically inspired hierarchical model of object recognition (Riesenhuber
and Poggio 1999, Serre et al. 2007b), and extending it to include feedback connectivity.
A Bayesian network that captures the structure and properties of the HMAX model is
developed, replacing the classical deterministic view with a probabilistic interpretation. The
proposed model approximates the selectivity and invariance operations of the HMAX model
using the belief propagation algorithm. Hence, the model not only achieves successful feedforward
recognition invariant to position and size, but is also able to reproduce modulatory effects
of higher-level feedback, such as illusory contour completion, attention and mental imagery.
Overall, the model provides a biophysiologically plausible interpretation, based on state-of-theart
probabilistic approaches and supported by current experimental evidence, of the interaction
between top-down global feedback and bottom-up local evidence in the context of hierarchical
object perception
Explicit excluded volume of cylindrically symmetric convex bodies
We represent explicitly the excluded volume Ve{B1,B2} of two generic
cylindrically symmetric, convex rigid bodies, B1 and B2, in terms of a family
of shape functionals evaluated separately on B1 and B2. We show that Ve{B1,B2}
fails systematically to feature a dipolar component, thus making illusory the
assignment of any shape dipole to a tapered body in this class. The method
proposed here is applied to cones and validated by a shape-reconstruction
algorithm. It is further applied to spheroids (ellipsoids of revolution), for
which it shows how some analytic estimates already regarded as classics should
indeed be emended
Harmonics added to a flickering light can upset the balance between ON and OFF pathways to produce illusory colors
The neural signals generated by the light-sensitive photoreceptors in the human eye are substantially processed and recoded in the retina before being transmitted to the brain via the optic nerve. A key aspect of this recoding is the splitting of the signals within the two major cone-driven visual pathways into distinct ON and OFF branches that transmit information about increases and decreases in the neural signal around its mean level. While this separation is clearly important physiologically, its effect on perception is unclear. We have developed a model of the ON and OFF pathways in early color processing. Using this model as a guide, we can produce imbalances in the ON and OFF pathways by changing the shapes of time-varying stimulus waveforms and thus make reliable and predictable alterations to the perceived average color of the stimulus—although the physical mean of the waveforms does not change. The key components in the model are the early half-wave rectifying synapses that split retinal photoreceptor outputs into the ON and OFF pathways and later sigmoidal nonlinearities in each pathway. The ability to systematically vary the waveforms to change a perceptual quality by changing the balance of signals between the ON and OFF visual pathways provides a powerful psychophysical tool for disentangling and investigating the neural workings of human vision
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