The Segmentation of Proto-Objects in the Monkey Primary Visual Cortex
Open accessAbstract
During visual perception, the brain enhances the representations of image regions that belong to figures and suppresses those that belong to the background. Natural images contain many regions that initially appear to be part of a figure when analyzed locally (proto-objects) but are actually part of the background if the whole image is considered. These proto-grounds must be correctly assigned to the background to allow correct shape identification and guide behavior. To understand how the brain resolves this conflict between local and global processing, we recorded neuronal activity from the primary visual cortex (V1) of macaque monkeys while they discriminated between n/u shapes that have a central proto-ground region. We studied the fine-grained spatiotemporal profile of neural activity evoked by the n/u shape and found that neural representation of the object proceeded from a coarse-to-fine resolution. Approximately 100 ms after the stimulus onset, the representation of the proto-ground region was enhanced together with the rest of the n/u surface, but after ∼115 ms, the proto-ground was suppressed back to the level of the background. Suppression of the proto-ground was only present in animals that had been trained to perform the shape-discrimination task, and it predicted the choice of the animal on a trial-by-trial basis. Attention enhanced figure-ground modulation, but it had no effect on the strength of proto-ground suppression. The results indicate that the accuracy of scene segmentation is sharpened by a suppressive process that resolves local ambiguities by assigning proto-grounds to the background.
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Multiple tethered wired UEAs have been implanted in the visual cortex of monkeys and these implants allow monkeys to recognize simple shapes, motions, and letters.
“Multiple tethered wired UEAs have been already implanted in the visual cortex of monkeys (14, 40, 46) and these UEA implants allow monkeys to recognize simple shapes, motions, and letters (14).”
From Visual percepts evoked with an intracortical 96-channel microelectrode array inserted in human occipital cortex (2021) · cites this paper as [40]
Training history and surgical details (p. 14) reports multiple microelectrode arrays implanted over the monkeys’ V1, and the Introduction (p. 5) reports that the monkeys discriminated n/u shapes. The arrays recorded neural activity; the paper does not say they enabled recognition, nor does it report recognition of motion or other letters. (LLM, conf=0.88)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredPrevious studies in monkeys and humans demonstrated that the thresholds for phosphene perception in areas V1 and V2 are similar and that the quality of the percepts elicited is comparable.
“Previous studies in monkeys and humans demonstrated that the thresholds for phosphene perception in areas V1 and V2 are similar and that the quality of the percepts that are elicited are comparable (14, 3840).”
From Visual percepts evoked with an intracortical 96-channel microelectrode array inserted in human occipital cortex (2021) · cites this paper as [40]
The In Brief section (p. 2) and Introduction (p. 5) describe recordings of V1 activity during shape discrimination in monkeys. A search for phosphene thresholds, V2, and the quality of stimulation-elicited percepts found no passage addressing the claimed comparison between V1 and V2 in monkeys and humans. (LLM, conf=0.76)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThese implants in monkey visual cortex are providing a better understanding of how the brain enhances the representations of visual objects in different visual regions.
“these implants are providing a better understanding of how the brain enhances the representations of visual objects in different visual regions (Klink et al., 2017; Self et al., 2019).”
From Toward Long-Term Communication With the Brain in the Blind by Intracortical Stimulation: Challenges and Future Prospects (2020) · cites this paper as Self et al., 2019
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- Authors
- Self, M. W., Jeurissen, D., van Ham, A. F., van Vugt, B., Poort, J., & Roelfsema, P. R.
- Affiliations
- Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience (NL)
- Corresponding author
- Self, Matthew W.
- Venue
- Current Biology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2019-03
- Volume
- 29
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 1019-1029.e4
- ISSN
- 0960-9822 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2920989903
- Cited by
- 42
- References
- 45
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 1
- FWCI
- 2.61
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Current Biology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- VU Research Portal (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Pure Amsterdam UMC (submittedVersion)
- KNAW research portal (Royal Academy of Art and Sciences (KNAW)) (submittedVersion)
- Apollo (University of Cambridge) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Apollo
- Funders
- NWO (823-02-010)
- European Union
- ERC (339490, 7202070, 785907)
- Human Brain Project
- Simons Foundation (414196)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition › Visual Attention and Saliency Detection
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
- Keywords
- proto-objects, foreground-background segmentation, primary visual cortex, global-local processing, attention, scene segmentation, macaque, spatiotemporal neural activity, shape perception
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Macaca mulatta, Male, Neurons, Pattern Recognition, Visual, Photic Stimulation, Visual Cortex
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