The representation of perceived angular size in human primary visual cortex

Two objects that project the same visual angle on the retina can appear to occupy very different proportions of the visual field if they are perceived to be at different distances. What happens to the retinotopic map in primary visual cortex (V1) during the perception of these size illusions? Here we show, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), that the retinotopic representation of an object changes in accordance with its perceived angular size. A distant object that appears to occupy a larger portion of the visual field activates a larger area in V1 than an object of equal angular size that is perceived to be closer and smaller. These results demonstrate that the retinal size of an object and the depth information in a scene are combined early in the human visual system.

[1]  Alfred H. Holway,et al.  Determinants of Apparent Visual Size with Distance Variant , 1941 .

[2]  R. B. Joynson.  The Problem of Size and Distance , 1949 .

[3]  A. S. Gilinsky,et al.  The effect of attitude upon the perception of size. , 1955, The American journal of psychology.

[4]  H. Barlow.  Temporal and spatial summation in human vision at different background intensities , 1958, The Journal of physiology.

[5]  Ray Hyman,et al.  Attitude and Distance-Estimation as Variables in Size-Matching , 1959 .

[6]  L. Kaufman,et al.  The moon illusion. , 1962, Scientific American.

[7]  H. Gruber,et al.  Moon Illusion and Emmert's Law , 1962, Science.

[8]  L Kaufman,et al.  The Moon Illusion, I: Explanation of this phenomenon was sought through the use of artificial moons seen on the sky. , 1962, Science.

[9]  L. Kaufman,et al.  The Moon Illusion, II , 1962, Science.

[10]  H. Ono,et al.  Distal and proximal size under reduced and non-reduced viewing conditions. , 1966, The American journal of psychology.

[11]  W. Richards.  Apparent modifiability of receptive fields during accommodation and convergence and a model for size constancy , 1967 .

[12]  H. Leibowitz,et al.  Ponzo Perspective Illusion as a Manifestation of Space Perception , 1969, Science.

[13]  J M Foley,et al.  The size-distance relation and intrinsic geometry of visual space: implications for processing. , 1972, Vision research.

[14]  D. Kersten.  Spatial summation in visual noise , 1984, Vision Research.

[15]  D. McCready.  On size, distance, and visual angle perception , 1985, Perception & psychophysics.

[16]  D C Van Essen,et al.  Shifter circuits: a computational strategy for dynamic aspects of visual processing. , 1987, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[17]  S Thorpe,et al.  Modulation of neural stereoscopic processing in primate area V1 by the viewing distance. , 1992, Science.

[18]  J W Belliveau,et al.  Borders of multiple visual areas in humans revealed by functional magnetic resonance imaging. , 1995, Science.

[19]  G. Glover,et al.  Retinotopic organization in human visual cortex and the spatial precision of functional MRI. , 1997, Cerebral cortex.

[20]  A. Dale,et al.  The Retinotopy of Visual Spatial Attention , 1998, Neuron.

[21]  G. W. Larson,et al.  Rendering with radiance - the art and science of lighting visualization , 2004, Morgan Kaufmann series in computer graphics and geometric modeling.

[22]  A. Dobbins,et al.  Distance modulation of neural activity in the visual cortex. , 1998, Science.

[23]  D. Somers,et al.  Functional MRI reveals spatially specific attentional modulation in human primary visual cortex. , 1999, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[24]  D. Heeger,et al.  Activity in primary visual cortex predicts performance in a visual detection task , 2000, Nature Neuroscience.

[25]  L Kaufman,et al.  Explaining the moon illusion. , 2000, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[26]  Implications for Processing , 2002 .

[27]  David Whitney,et al.  Flexible Retinotopy: Motion-Dependent Position Coding in the Visual Cortex , 2003, Science.

[28]  David Whitney,et al.  Flexible retinotopy: motion-dependent position coding in the visual cortex. , 2010, Science.

[29]  Whitman Richards.  Spatial remapping in the primate visual system , 2004, Kybernetik.

[30]  Evidence for a neurological zoom system in vision from angular changes in some receptive fields of single neurons with changes in fixation distance in the human visual cortex , 1970, Experientia.