Release from Cross-Orientation Suppression Facilitates 3D Shape Perception

Authors

Andrea Li, CUNY Queens CollegeFollow
Qasim Zaidi, State University of New York College of Optometry

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

December 2009

Abstract

Cross-orientation suppression (COS) in striate cortex has been implicated in the efficient encoding of visual stimuli. We show that release from COS facilitates the decoding of 3-D shape. In planar surfaces overlaid with textures, slanting the surface can increase the visibility of the component parallel to the slant. Since this component provides the orientation flows that signify 3-D shape, the enhancement of visibility facilitates 3-D slant perception. Contrast thresholds reveal that this enhancement results from a decrease in COS when 3-D slant creates a frequency mismatch between texture components. We show that coupling compressive nonlinearities in LGN neurons with expansive nonlinearities in cortical neurons can model the frequency-specific component of suppression.

Comments

This work was originally published in PLoS ONE, available at doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0008333.