Abstract

D. K. Lee, L. Itti, C. Koch, J. Braun, Attention activates winner-take-all competition among visual filters, Nature Neuroscience, Vol. 2, No. 4, pp. 375-81, Apr 1999. [2000 impact factor: 12.636] (Cited by 576)

Abstract: Shifting attention away from a visual stimulus reduces, but does not abolish, visual discrimination performance. This residual vision with 'poor' attention can be compared to normal vision with 'full' attention to reveal how attention alters visual perception. We report large differences between residual and normal visual thresholds for discriminating the orientation or spatial frequency of simple patterns, and smaller differences for discriminating contrast. A computational model, in which attention activates a winner-take-all competition among overlapping visual filters, quantitatively accounts for all observations. Our model predicts that the effects of attention on visual cortical neurons include increased contrast gain as well as sharper tuning to orientation and spatial frequency.

Keywords: Attention/*physiology ; Contrast Sensitivity/physiology ; Discrimination (Psychology)/*physiology ; Human ; *Models, Neurological ; Neurons/physiology ; Pattern Recognition, Visual/physiology ; Perceptual Masking ; Sensory Thresholds ; Space Perception/physiology ; Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S. ; Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S. ; Visual Cortex/*physiology ; Visual Perception/*physiology ; 1999/04/16 02:03

Themes: Computational Modeling, Model of Top-Down Attentional Modulation, Human Psychophysics