Object-based attention in the primary visual cortex of the macaque monkey
Abstract
Typical natural visual scenes contain many objects, which need to be segregated from each other and from the background. Present theories subdivide the processes responsible for this segregation into a pre-attentive and attentive system. The pre-attentive system segregates image regions that 'pop out' rapidly and in parallel across the visual field. In the primary visual cortex, responses to pre-attentively selected image regions are enhanced. When objects do not segregate automatically from the rest of the image, the time-consuming attentive system is recruited. Here we investigate whether attentive selection is also associated with a modulation of firing rates in area V1 of the brain in monkeys trained to perform a curve-tracing task. Neuronal responses to the various segments of a target curve were simultaneously enhanced relative to responses evoked by a distractor curve, even if the two curves crossed each other. This indicates that object-based attention is associated with a response enhancement at the earliest level of the visual cortical processing hierarchy.
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Such competition is ubiquitous in real images, although we are usually unaware of it as we make these inferences unconsciously in about 100 ms.
“Such competition is ubiquitous in real images, although we are usually unaware of it as we make these inferences unconsciously in 100 ms or so. Some of the most striking examples are in the work of Adelson and collaborators, 31,32”
From Hierarchical Bayesian inference in the visual cortex (2003) · cites this paper as [31]
Back projections may be important for visual awareness and beyond tasks such as visual categorization for perceptual organization and figure-ground segmentation or curve tracing.
“In addition, back projections may be important for visual awareness and beyond tasks such as visual categorization for perceptual organization and figure-ground segmentation (48-50) or curve tracing (51).”
From A feedforward architecture accounts for rapid categorization (2007) · cites this paper as [51]
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- Authors
- Roelfsema, P. R., Lamme, V. A. F., & Spekreijse, H.
- Affiliations
- Amsterdam UMC Location University of Amsterdam (NL)
- Corresponding author
- Roelfsema, Pieter R.
- Venue
- Nature
- Published
- 1998-09
- Volume
- 395
- Issue
- 6700
- Pages
- 376-381
- ISSN
- 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
- 1476-4687
- OpenAlex
- W2135988428
- Cited by
- 814
- References
- 31
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 16 · 2024: 22 · 2023: 23 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 31 · 2020: 17 · 2019: 19 · 2018: 23 · 2017: 30 · 2016: 36 · 2015: 36 · 2014: 31 · 2013: 31 · 2012: 33
- FWCI
- 22.72
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Nature (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- UvA-DARE (University of Amsterdam) (submittedVersion)
- Pure Amsterdam UMC (submittedVersion)
- 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
- object-based attention, primary visual cortex, area V1, preattentive processing, distractor suppression, macaque
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Attention, Fixation, Ocular, Macaca, Neurons, Visual Cortex, Visual Perception
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