Stimulus conflation and tuning selectivity in V4 neurons: a model of visual crowding.

ABSTRACT: Visual crowding is a fundamental constraint on our ability to identify peripheral objects in cluttered environments. This study proposes a descriptive model for understanding crowding based on the tuning selectivity for stimuli within the receptive field (RF) and examines potential neural correlates in cortical area V4. For V4 neurons, optimally sized, letter-like stimuli are much smaller than the RF. This permits stimulus conflation, the fusing of separate objects into a single identity, to occur within the RF of single neurons. Flanking interactions between such stimuli were found to be limited to the RF. The response to an optimal stimulus centered in the neuron's RF, is suppressed by the simultaneous presentation of flanking stimuli within the RF. The degree of suppression is a functio

SUBMITTER: Motter BC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5783327 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature