Author: Zhaoping Li
Published in
Proc Natl Acad Sci, USA Volumn 96, 1999. Page 10530-10535
Available at
http://www.gatsby.ucl.ac.uk/~zhaoping/preattentivevision.html
or at
http://www.pnas.org/content/vol96/issue18/#PSYCHOLOGY-BS
Abstract:
I use a model to show how simple, bottom-up, neural
mechanisms in primary visual cortex can qualitatively
explain the preattentive component of complex
psychophysical phenomena of visual search for a
target among distracters. Depending on the image
features, the speed of search ranges from fast, when a
target pops-out or is instantaneously detectable,
to very slow, and it can be asymmetric with respect to
switches between the target and distracter objects.
It has been unclear which neural mechanisms or even
cortical areas control the ease of search, and no
physiological correlate has been found for search
asymmetry. My model suggests that contextual influences
in V1 play a significant role.