Object grouping based on real-world regularities facilitates perception by reducing competitive interactions in visual cortex.

ABSTRACT: In virtually every real-life situation humans are confronted with complex and cluttered visual environments that contain a multitude of objects. Because of the limited capacity of the visual system, objects compete for neural representation and cognitive processing resources. Previous work has shown that such attentional competition is partly object based, such that competition among elements is reduced when these elements perceptually group into an object based on low-level cues. Here, using functional MRI (fMRI) and behavioral measures, we show that the attentional benefit of grouping extends to higher-level grouping based on the relative position of objects as experienced in the real world. An fMRI study designed to measure competitive interactions among objects in human visual cortex r

SUBMITTER: Kaiser D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4121846 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature