Perceptual grouping in the Ternus display: evidence for an `association field' in apparent motion

We present psychophysical experiments designed to reveal the role of facilitative contour interactions (the so-called 'association field') in apparent motion. We use the Ternus display (a trio of horizontally aligned elements oscillating in apparent motion). This display is perceived in 'element' motion when interframe intervals (IFIs) are short, and in 'group' motion when IFIs are long. Using Gabor elements arranged collinearly or in parallel, IFI is varied to find group motion thresholds. Consistent with a role for collinearity in perceptual grouping, thresholds are lower for collinear displays. The collinear vs. parallel comparison is made while manipulating contrast, spatial frequency, eccentricity, phase, orientation jitter and element separation. Results show a clear effect of contrast not observed in lateral masking paradigms or in 'pathfinder' stimuli, with higher contrast promoting within-frame grouping, and evidence of facilitatory interactions among parallel elements (although over a smaller scale). The tendency for collinear displays to group more than parallel displays declined with eccentricity with no clear difference evident at 12 deg. These changes in group motion thresholds indicate changing association strengths among the elements and is accounted for in terms of an association field. Alternative accounts in terms of second-order collector units or visible persistence are considered but are not supported by the data.

[1]  A. Cowey,et al.  Topography of the retina and striate cortex and its relationship to visual acuity in rhesus monkeys and squirrel monkeys , 2004, Experimental Brain Research.

[2]  B Moulden,et al.  Collator units: second-stage orientational filters. , 1994, Ciba Foundation symposium.

[3]  T. Wiesel,et al.  Columnar specificity of intrinsic horizontal and corticocortical connections in cat visual cortex , 1989, The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience.

[4]  B. Julesz,et al.  Perceptual sensitivity maps within globally defined visual shapes , 1994, Nature.

[5]  R. Shapley,et al.  Contrast's effect on spatial summation by macaque V1 neurons , 1999, Nature Neuroscience.

[6]  B. Breitmeyer,et al.  Spatial frequency and contrast effects on percepts of bistable stroboscopic motion , 1988, Perception & psychophysics.

[7]  Bruno G. Breitmeyer,et al.  The role of visual pattern persistence in bistable stroboscopic motion , 1986, Vision Research.

[8]  M. Morgan,et al.  Perceived diagonals in grids and lattices , 1989, Vision Research.

[9]  P Kramer,et al.  Visible persistence and form correspondence in Ternus apparent motion , 1999, Perception & psychophysics.

[10]  D. Fitzpatrick.  The functional organization of local circuits in visual cortex: insights from the study of tree shrew striate cortex. , 1996, Cerebral cortex.

[11]  U. Polat,et al.  What pattern the eye sees best , 1999, Vision Research.

[12]  Robert F. Hess,et al.  Dynamics of contour integration , 2001, Vision Research.

[13]  J. T. Petersik,et al.  High Fundamental Spatial Frequencies and Edges have Different Perceptual Consequences in the ‘Group/End-to-End’ Movement Phenomenon , 1981, Perception.

[14]  Marc Green,et al.  What determines correspondence strength in apparent motion? , 1986, Vision Research.

[15]  D. Fitzpatrick,et al.  Orientation Selectivity and the Arrangement of Horizontal Connections in Tree Shrew Striate Cortex , 1997, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[16]  J. Ternus.  Experimentelle Untersuchungen über phänomenale Identität , 1926 .

[17]  Takehiro Ueno.  Visible persistence: Effects of luminance, spatial frequency and orientation , 1983, Vision Research.

[18]  D. Sagi,et al.  Isolating Excitatory and Inhibitory Nonlinear Spatial Interactions Involved in Contrast Detection * * Part of this paper was presented at the 17th ECVP conference, Eindhoven, The Netherlands (September 1994). , 1996, Vision Research.

[19]  Curtis L. Baker,et al.  Eccentricity-dependent scaling of the limits for short-range apparent motion perception , 1985, Vision Research.

[20]  M. Wertheimer,et al.  A source book of Gestalt psychology. , 1939 .

[21]  O. Braddick.  A short-range process in apparent motion. , 1974, Vision research.

[22]  G. Westheimer.  The spatial grain of the perifoveal visual field , 1982, Vision Research.

[23]  Mark A. Georgeson,et al.  On seeing temporal gaps between gratings: A criterion problem for measurement of visible persistence , 1985, Vision Research.

[24]  S. Klein,et al.  Vernier acuity, crowding and cortical magnification , 1985, Vision Research.

[25]  Steven C. Dakin,et al.  Absence of contour linking in peripheral vision , 1997, Nature.

[26]  J. Timothy Petersik,et al.  Factors controlling the competing sensations produced by a bistable stroboscopic motion display , 1979, Vision Research.

[27]  D. Sagi,et al.  Contrast integration across space , 1999, Vision Research.

[28]  Michael S. Landy,et al.  Pattern Discrimination, Visual Filters, and Spatial Sampling Irregularity , 1991 .

[29]  W Singer,et al.  The Perceptual Grouping Criterion of Colinearity is Reflected by Anisotropies of Connections in the Primary Visual Cortex , 1997, The European journal of neuroscience.

[30]  D. Sagi,et al.  Effects of spatial configuration on contrast detection , 1998, Vision Research.

[31]  O J Braddick,et al.  Low-level and high-level processes in apparent motion. , 1980, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences.

[32]  M. Dawson,et al.  The how and why of what went where in apparent motion: modeling solutions to the motion correspondence problem. , 1991, Psychological review.

[33]  U. Polat,et al.  Neurophysiological Evidence for Contrast Dependent Long-range Facilitation and Suppression in the Human Visual Cortex , 1996, Vision Research.

[34]  G. Blasdel,et al.  Intrinsic connections of macaque striate cortex: axonal projections of cells outside lamina 4C , 1985, The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience.

[35]  C. Gilbert.  Horizontal integration and cortical dynamics , 1992, Neuron.

[36]  The effects of dichoptic and binocular viewing on bistable motion percepts , 1989, Vision Research.

[37]  A Pantle,et al.  A multistable movement display: evidence for two separate motion systems in human vision. , 1976, Science.

[38]  Michael R. W. Dawson,et al.  Polarity matching in the Ternus configuration , 1994, Vision Research.

[39]  T. Wiesel,et al.  Relationships between horizontal interactions and functional architecture in cat striate cortex as revealed by cross-correlation analysis , 1986, The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience.

[40]  B. Breitmeyer,et al.  Visual persistence and the effect of eccentric viewing, element size, and frame duration on bistable stroboscopic motion percepts , 1986, Perception & psychophysics.

[41]  C. Gilbert,et al.  Improvement in visual sensitivity by changes in local context: Parallel studies in human observers and in V1 of alert monkeys , 1995, Neuron.

[42]  U. Polat,et al.  The architecture of perceptual spatial interactions , 1994, Vision Research.

[43]  C. Pournaras,et al.  TGF-beta1, TGF-beta receptor II and ED-A fibronectin expression in myofibroblast of vitreoretinopathy. , 2000, Investigative ophthalmology & visual science.

[44]  J. Braun.  On the detection of salient contours. , 1999, Spatial vision.

[45]  U. Polat,et al.  Lateral interactions between spatial channels: Suppression and facilitation revealed by lateral masking experiments , 1993, Vision Research.

[46]  D H Brainard,et al.  The Psychophysics Toolbox. , 1997, Spatial vision.

[47]  Michael R. W. Dawson,et al.  Simultaneity in the Ternus configuration: psychophysical data and a computer model , 1994, Vision Research.

[48]  M. Morgan,et al.  Facilitation from collinear flanks is cancelled by non-collinear flanks , 2000, Vision Research.

[49]  J. Nelson,et al.  Intracortical facilitation among co-oriented, co-axially aligned simple cells in cat striate cortex , 2004, Experimental Brain Research.

[50]  O. Braddick,et al.  Direction discrimination for band-pass filtered random dot kinematograms , 1990, Vision Research.

[51]  I Kovács,et al.  A closed curve is much more than an incomplete one: effect of closure in figure-ground segmentation. , 1993, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[52]  U. Polat,et al.  Collinear stimuli regulate visual responses depending on cell's contrast threshold , 1998, Nature.

[53]  M. Coltheart,et al.  Iconic memory and visible persistence , 1980, Perception & psychophysics.

[54]  D. Ts'o,et al.  The organization of chromatic and spatial interactions in the primate striate cortex , 1988, The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience.

[55]  D. Levi,et al.  Spatial facilitation predicted with end-stopped spatial filters , 1997, Vision Research.

[56]  R. Vautin,et al.  Magnification factor and receptive field size in foveal striate cortex of the monkey , 2004, Experimental Brain Research.

[57]  A. Grinvald,et al.  Relationship between intrinsic connections and functional architecture revealed by optical imaging and in vivo targeted biocytin injections in primate striate cortex. , 1993, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[58]  D G Pelli,et al.  Pixel independence: measuring spatial interactions on a CRT display. , 1997, Spatial vision.

[59]  T. Wiesel,et al.  Intrinsic connectivity and receptive field properties in visual cortex , 1985, Vision Research.

[60]  S. Yantis,et al.  Perceptual grouping in space and time: Evidence from the Ternus display , 1997, Perception & psychophysics.

[61]  J T Petersik,et al.  Effects of spatial parameters on the perceptual organization of a bistable motion display , 1980, Perception & psychophysics.

[62]  Michael S. Landy,et al.  Computational models of visual processing , 1991 .

[63]  J. T. Petersik.  Group movement produced by the short-range process , 1986, Perception & psychophysics.

[64]  Josef Ternus,et al.  The problem of phenomenal identity. , 1938 .

[65]  Oliver Braddick,et al.  Apparent motion and the motion detector , 1978 .

[66]  Charles D. Gilbert,et al.  The Role of Horizontal Connections in Generating Long Receptive Fields in the Cat Visual Cortex , 1989, The European journal of neuroscience.

[67]  M. Morgan,et al.  Biases and sensitivities in geometrical illusions , 1990, Vision Research.

[68]  David J. Field,et al.  Contour integration by the human visual system: Evidence for a local “association field” , 1993, Vision Research.

[69]  M J Morgan,et al.  The Poggendorff illusion: a bias in the estimation of the orientation of virtual lines by second-stage filters , 1999, Vision Research.

[70]  Dennis M. Levi,et al.  Position acuity with opposite-contrast polarity features: Evidence for a nonlinear collector mechanism for position acuity? , 1996, Vision Research.

[71]  J Lorenceau,et al.  Cooperative and competitive spatial interactions in motion integration , 1999, Visual Neuroscience.

[72]  S. Grossberg,et al.  Contrast-sensitive perceptual grouping and object-based attention in the laminar circuits of primary visual cortex , 2000, Vision Research.