The symposium was a success! To know more about the presentations or related papers, please email navalpak at usc dot edu
VSS symposium
''Integrating Top-down and Bottom-Up Visual Attention''
Organizer: Vidhya Navalpakkam
Time: May 5, 2006, 3:15 - 5:15 pm, Hyatt Salon E
Synopsis
Although the last few decades have witnessed enormous progress in psychophysics, physiology, imaging, theory and modeling of either bottom-up or top-down visual attention, understanding their integration is the next main frontier. It poses several open challenges: Where do top-down and bottom-up signals meet and interact? At what time and spatial scale do they interact? What is the granularity of their interaction -- is it at the level of a single neuron, or a population of neurons? What computational principles underly the integration of these signals -- is it a linear summation, or multiplication or some other function? What are the behavioral correlates of such integration?
This symposium aims to shed light on the above questions by reviewing recent cutting edge research in integrating top-down and bottom-up visual attention. It will be a unique forum where experts from different faculties including theory, modeling, psychophysics, imaging and physiology will present diverse and potentially conflicting perspectives, leading to exciting discussions and debates.
Presentations
Introduction to the symposium, Vidhya Navalpakkam (USC)
Changing your mind: Psychophysical measurement of the top-down and bottom-up contributions to the guidance of visual attention, Jeremy Wolfe (Harvard)
Computational principles underlying integration of top-down and bottom-up signals, Laurent Itti (USC)
Neural basis of spatial attention, Kirk Thompson (NIH)
Cortical Mechanisms of Voluntary and Stimulus-Driven Attentional Control, Steven Yantis (John Hopkins)
Concluding remarks and outstanding issues, Vidhya Navalpakkam (USC)