MECHANISMS OF PERCEPTUAL ORGANIZATION IN HUMAN VISION

Vanderbilt University, Nashville TN

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

DESCRIPTION (Adapted from applicant's abstract): How does vision specify the objects and events that guide our actions? How does vision interact with other brain systems in this specification? These broad questions motivate the experiments in this proposal. This proposal, the second resubmission of a competitive renewal of the PI's current grant (EY 07760), describes a set of studies using psychophysical methods and novel display techniques to pursue the following research problems: a) perception of shape and figure/ground relations based on edge and contour information specified solely by temporal information; b) influence of auditory signals and environmental context on registration and integration of object/motion information. Specific methods include forced-choice measurement of shape discrimination performance, tracking of periods of dominance and suppression in binocular rivalry accompanied by sound, measurement of direction and/or motion coherence discrimination under conditions where observers are also listening to moving sound sources. Results from these experiments will bear importantly on contemporary theories of feature binding, motion perception and perceptual grouping. In addition, this work broadens the PI's studies to include the role of context on visual perception. It is anticipated that results will point the way to physiological and neural imaging studies of the neural concomitants of visual perception. In addition, the work on spatial structure from temporal synchrony may have implications for understanding clinical disorders involving disruptions in temporal processing, including dyslexia.