3,956 research outputs found
Texture Segregation By Visual Cortex: Perceptual Grouping, Attention, and Learning
A neural model is proposed of how laminar interactions in the visual cortex may learn and recognize object texture and form boundaries. The model brings together five interacting processes: region-based texture classification, contour-based boundary grouping, surface filling-in, spatial attention, and object attention. The model shows how form boundaries can determine regions in which surface filling-in occurs; how surface filling-in interacts with spatial attention to generate a form-fitting distribution of spatial attention, or attentional shroud; how the strongest shroud can inhibit weaker shrouds; and how the winning shroud regulates learning of texture categories, and thus the allocation of object attention. The model can discriminate abutted textures with blurred boundaries and is sensitive to texture boundary attributes like discontinuities in orientation and texture flow curvature as well as to relative orientations of texture elements. The model quantitatively fits a large set of human psychophysical data on orientation-based textures. Object boundar output of the model is compared to computer vision algorithms using a set of human segmented photographic images. The model classifies textures and suppresses noise using a multiple scale oriented filterbank and a distributed Adaptive Resonance Theory (dART) classifier. The matched signal between the bottom-up texture inputs and top-down learned texture categories is utilized by oriented competitive and cooperative grouping processes to generate texture boundaries that control surface filling-in and spatial attention. Topdown modulatory attentional feedback from boundary and surface representations to early filtering stages results in enhanced texture boundaries and more efficient learning of texture within attended surface regions. Surface-based attention also provides a self-supervising training signal for learning new textures. Importance of the surface-based attentional feedback in texture learning and classification is tested using a set of textured images from the Brodatz micro-texture album. Benchmark studies vary from 95.1% to 98.6% with attention, and from 90.6% to 93.2% without attention.Air Force Office of Scientific Research (F49620-01-1-0397, F49620-01-1-0423); National Science Foundation (SBE-0354378); Office of Naval Research (N00014-01-1-0624
Semantic Object Parsing with Local-Global Long Short-Term Memory
Semantic object parsing is a fundamental task for understanding objects in
detail in computer vision community, where incorporating multi-level contextual
information is critical for achieving such fine-grained pixel-level
recognition. Prior methods often leverage the contextual information through
post-processing predicted confidence maps. In this work, we propose a novel
deep Local-Global Long Short-Term Memory (LG-LSTM) architecture to seamlessly
incorporate short-distance and long-distance spatial dependencies into the
feature learning over all pixel positions. In each LG-LSTM layer, local
guidance from neighboring positions and global guidance from the whole image
are imposed on each position to better exploit complex local and global
contextual information. Individual LSTMs for distinct spatial dimensions are
also utilized to intrinsically capture various spatial layouts of semantic
parts in the images, yielding distinct hidden and memory cells of each position
for each dimension. In our parsing approach, several LG-LSTM layers are stacked
and appended to the intermediate convolutional layers to directly enhance
visual features, allowing network parameters to be learned in an end-to-end
way. The long chains of sequential computation by stacked LG-LSTM layers also
enable each pixel to sense a much larger region for inference benefiting from
the memorization of previous dependencies in all positions along all
dimensions. Comprehensive evaluations on three public datasets well demonstrate
the significant superiority of our LG-LSTM over other state-of-the-art methods.Comment: 10 page
Recurrent Attention Models for Depth-Based Person Identification
We present an attention-based model that reasons on human body shape and
motion dynamics to identify individuals in the absence of RGB information,
hence in the dark. Our approach leverages unique 4D spatio-temporal signatures
to address the identification problem across days. Formulated as a
reinforcement learning task, our model is based on a combination of
convolutional and recurrent neural networks with the goal of identifying small,
discriminative regions indicative of human identity. We demonstrate that our
model produces state-of-the-art results on several published datasets given
only depth images. We further study the robustness of our model towards
viewpoint, appearance, and volumetric changes. Finally, we share insights
gleaned from interpretable 2D, 3D, and 4D visualizations of our model's
spatio-temporal attention.Comment: Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR) 201
Neural mechanisms of attentional control in mindfulness meditation
The scientific interest in meditation and mindfulness practice has recently seen an unprecedented surge. After an initial phase of presenting beneficial effects of mindfulness practice in various domains, research is now seeking to unravel the underlying psychological and neurophysiological mechanisms. Advances in understanding these processes are required for improving and fine-tuning mindfulness-based interventions that target specific conditions such as eating disorders or attention deficit hyperactivity disorders. This review presents a theoretical framework that emphasizes the central role of attentional control mechanisms in the development of mindfulness skills. It discusses the phenomenological level of experience during meditation, the different attentional functions that are involved, and relates these to the brain networks that subserve these functions. On the basis of currently available empirical evidence specific processes as to how attention exerts its positive influence are considered and it is concluded that meditation practice appears to positively impact attentional functions by improving resource allocation processes. As a result, attentional resources are allocated more fully during early processing phases which subsequently enhance further processing. Neural changes resulting from a pure form of mindfulness practice that is central to most mindfulness programs are considered from the perspective that they constitute a useful reference point for future research. Furthermore, possible interrelations between the improvement of attentional control and emotion regulation skills are discussed
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