Mach Bands: How Many Models are Possible? Recent Experiemental Findings and Modeling Attempts

Mach bands are illusory bright and dark bands seen where a luminance plateau meets a ramp, as in half-shadows or penumbras. A tremendous amount of work has been devoted to studying the psychophysics and the potential underlying neural circuitry concerning this phenomenon. A number of theoretical models have also been proposed, originating in the seminal studies of Mach himself. The present article reviews the main experimental findings after 1965 and the main recent theories of early vision that have attempted to discount for the effect. It is shown that the different theories share working principles and can be grouped in three clsses: a) feature-based; b) rule-based; and c) filling-in. In order to evaluate individual proposals it is necessary to consider them in the larger picture of visual science and to determine how they contribute to the understanding of vision in general.Air Force Office of Scientific Research (F49620-92-J-0334); Office of Naval Research (N00014-J-4100); COPPE/UFRJ, Brazi

Mach Band Attenuation by Adjacent Stimuli

Mach bands are illusory bright and dark bands seen where a luminance plateau meets a ramp, as in half-shadows or penumbras. Ratliff, Milkman, and Kaufman (1983) showed that Mach bands are attenuated by placing stimuli, such as bars, nearby. An experiment comparing Mach band attenuation for bar and Craik-O'Brien stimuli shows that they are equally effective in attenuating Mach bands. The results suggest that the high-frequency components of a stimulus adjacent to a ramp are responsible for the attenuation. Thc findings are interpreted in terms of a recent filling-in model of brighness perception and the results of computer simulations of stimuli used by Ratliff et al and the present experiment are shown

A Neural Network Model of 3-D Lightness Perception

A neural network model of 3-D lightness perception is presented which builds upon the FACADE Theory Boundary Contour System/Feature Contour System of Grossberg and colleagues. Early ratio encoding by retinal ganglion neurons as well as psychophysical results on constancy across different backgrounds (background constancy) are used to provide functional constraints to the theory and suggest a contrast negation hypothesis which states that ratio measures between coplanar regions are given more weight in the determination of lightness of the respective regions. Simulations of the model address data on lightness perception, including the coplanar ratio hypothesis, the Benary cross and VVhite's illusion.Air Force Office of Scientific Research (F49620-92-J-0334); Office of Naval Research (N00014-91-J-4100); HNC SC-94-00

A Simple Cell Model with Multiple Spatial Frequency Selectivity and Linear/Non-Linear Response Properties

A model is described for cortical simple cells. Simple cells are selective for local contrast polarity, signaling light-dark and dark-light transitions. The proposed new architecture exhibits both linear and non-linear properties of simple cells. Linear responses are obtained by integration of the input stimulus within subfields of the cells, and by combinations of them. Non-linear behavior can be seen in the selectivity for certain features that can be characterized by the spatial arrangement of activations generated by initial on- and off-cells (center-surround). The new model also exhibits spatial frequency selectivity with the generation of multi-scale properties being based on a single-scale band-pass input that is generated by the initial (retinal) center-surround processing stage.German BMFT grant (413-5839-01 IN 101 C/1); CNPq and NUTES/UFRJ, Brazi

Texture Segregation, Surface Representation, and Figure-ground Separation

A widespread view is that most of texture segregation can be accounted for by differences in the spatial frequency content of texture regions. Evidence from both psychophysical and physiological studies indicate, however, that beyond these early filtering stages,there are stages of 3-D boundary segmentation and surface representation that are used to segregate textures. Chromatic segregation of element-arrangement patterns as studied by Beck and colleagues - cannot be completely explained by the filtering mechanisms previously employed to account for achromatic segregation. An element arrangement pattern is composed of two types of elements that are arranged differently in different image regions (e.g., vertically on top and diagonally on bottom). FACADE theory mechanisms that have previously been used to explain data about 3-D vision and figure-ground separation are here used to simulate chromatic texture segregation data, in eluding data with equiluminant elements on dark or light homogenous backgrounds, or backgrounds composed of vertical and horizontal dark or light stripes, or horizontal notched stripes. These data include the fact that segregation of patterns composed of red and blue squares decreases with inereasing luminance of the interspaces. Asymmetric segregation properties under 3-D viewing conditions with the cquiluminant element;; dose or far arc abo simulated. Two key model properties arc a spatial impenetrability property that inhibits boundary grouping across regions with noncolinear texture elements, and a boundary-surface consistency property that uses feedback between boundary and surface representations to eliminate spurious boundary groupings and separate figures from their backgrounds.Office of Naval Research (N00014-95-1-0409, N00014-95-1-0657, ONR N00014-91-J-4100); CNPq/Brazil (520419/96-0); Air Force Office of Scientific Research (F49620-92-J-0334

A Contrast/Filling-In Model of 3-D Lightness Perception

Wallach's ratio hypothesis states that local luminance ratios clr!termine lightness perception under variable illumination. While local luminance ratios successfully discount gradual variations in illumination (illumination constancy or Type I constancy), they fail to explain lightness constancy in general. Some examples of failures of the ratio hypothesis include effects suggesting the coplanar ratio hypothesis (Gilchrist 1977), "assimilation" effects, and configural effects such as the Benary cross, and White's illusion. The present article extends the Boundary Contour System/Feature Contour System (BCS/FCS) approach to provide an explanation of these effects in terms of a neural model of 3-D lightness perception. Lightness constancy of objects in front of different backgrounds (background constancy or Type II constancy) is used to provide functional constraints to the theory and suggest a contrast negation hypothesis which states that ratio measures between coplanar regions are given more weight in the determination of lightness. Simulations of the model applied to several stimuli including Benary cross and White's illusion show that contrast negation mechanisms modulate illumination constancy mechanisms to extend the explanatory power of the model. The model is also used to devise new stimuli that test theoretical predictions

The Perception of Lightness in 3-D Curved Objects

Lightness constancy requires the visual system to somehow "parse" the input scene into illumination and reflectance components. Experiments on the perception of lightness for 3-D curved objects show that human observers are able to perform such a decomposition for some scenes but not for others. Lightness constancy was quite good when a rich local gray level context was provided. Deviations occurred when both illumination and reflectance changed along the surface of the objects. Does the perception of a 3-D surface and illuminant layout help calibrate lightness judgements? Our results showed a small but consistent improvement between lightness matches on ellipsoid shapes compared to flat rectangle shapes under similar illumination conditions. Illumination change over 3-D forms is therefore taken into account in lightness perception.COPPE/UFRJ, Brazil; Air Force Office of Scientific Research (F49620-92-J-0334); Office of Naval Research (N00014-J-4100, N00014-94-1-0597

Perceived Texture Segregation in Chromatic Element-Arrangement Patterns: High Intensity Interference

An element-arrangement pattern is composed of two types of elements that differ in the ways in which they are arranged in different regions of the pattern. We report experiments on the perceived segregation of chromatic element-arrangement patterns composed of equal-size red and blue squares as the luminances of the surround, the interspaces, and the background (surround plus interspaces) are varied. Perceived segregation was markedly reduced by increasing the luminance of the interspaces. Unlike achromatic element-arrangement patterns composed of squares differing in lightness (Beck, Graham, & Sutter, 1991), perceived segregation did not decrease when the luminance of the interspaces was below that of the squares. Perceived segregation was approximately constant for constant ratios of interspace luminance to square luminance and increased with the contrast ratio of the squares. Perceived segregation based on edge alignment was not interfered with by high intensity interspaces. Stereoscopic cues that caused the squares composing the element arrangement pattern to be seen in front of the interspaces did not greatly improve perceived segregation. One explanation of the results is in terms of inhibitory interactions among achromatic and chromatic cortical cells tuned to spatial-frequency and orientation. Alternately, the results may be explained in terms of how the luminance of the interspaces affects the grouping of the squares for encoding surface representations. Neither explanation accounts fully for the data and both mechanisms may be involved.Air Force Office of Scientific Research (F49620-92-J-0334); Northeast Consortium for Engineering Education (A303-21-93); Office of Naval Research (N00014-91J-4100); CNPQ and NUTES/UFRJ, Brazi