In the visual cortex of the brain, areas V1 and V2 are known to be involved in the processing of signals for spatial aspects of vision, including such features as texture discrimination and motion. Texture segregation is the process of distinguishing an object in the visual scene not by a local analysis of its shape and structure (called form perception), but by a more global analysis of its internal patterning. The spatial aspects of position and motion also can involve such global analysis in addition to local analysis. This project extends work on the nature of such spatial processing, and its relation to our perception of texture and movement, using a combination of physiological and psychophysical experiments. The use of identical stimuli for the physiology and the perception experiments allows correlation and interpretation of measures of detectability and discriminability for the individual cortical nerve cells and for conscious perception. A novel method of producing quantifiably variable patterned stimuli allows a separation of features related to the overall stimulus from features related to fine structure. Results will lead to a better understanding of the combinatorial rules for how the visual system integrates information about what an object is and where it is in the environment, which are two fundamental tasks for visually guided behavior. This study will have an impact beyond just visual science, to neuroscience and computational work, and will be of interest for work on artificial visual systems.
