Kaiser, Daniel orcid.org/0000-0002-9007-3160, Stein, Timo and Peelen, Marius V (2014) Object grouping based on real-world regularities facilitates perception by reducing competitive interactions in visual cortex. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. pp. 11217-11222. ISSN 1091-6490
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 revealed reduced neural competition between objects when these were presented in commonly experienced configurations, such as a lamp above a table, relative to the same objects presented in other configurations. In behavioral visual search studies, we then related this reduced neural competition to improved target detection when distracter objects were shown in regular configurations. Control studies showed that low-level grouping could not account for these results. We interpret these findings as reflecting the grouping of objects based on higher-level spatial-relational knowledge acquired through a lifetime of seeing objects in specific configurations. This interobject grouping effectively reduces the number of objects that compete for representation and thereby contributes to the efficiency of real-world perception.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Keywords: | Adult,Cognition/physiology,Female,Humans,Magnetic Resonance Imaging,Male,Pattern Recognition, Visual/physiology,Radiography,Visual Cortex/diagnostic imaging |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of York |
Academic Units: | The University of York > Faculty of Sciences (York) > Psychology (York) |
Depositing User: | Pure (York) |
Date Deposited: | 01 Nov 2019 09:10 |
Last Modified: | 16 Oct 2024 16:08 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1400559111 |
Status: | Published |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1073/pnas.1400559111 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:152955 |
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