Neural dynamics of 3-D surface perception: Figure-ground separation and lightness perception

Author(s): Grossberg, S. | Kelly, F.J. |

Year: 2000

Citation: Perception & Psychophysics, 62, 1596-1619.

Abstract: This article develops the FACADE theory of three-dimensional (3-D) vision to simulate data concerning how two-dimensional (2-D) pictures give rise to 3-D percepts of occluded and occluding surfaces. The theory suggests how geometrical and contrastive properties of an image can either cooperate or compete when forming the boundary and surface representations that subserve conscious visual percepts. Spatially long-range cooperation and short-range competition work together to separate boundaries of occluding figures from their occluded neighbors, thereby providing sensitivity to T-junctions without the need to assume that T-junction ?detectors? exist. Both boundary and surface representations of occluded objects may be amodally completed, while the surface representations of unoccluded objects become visible through modal processes. Computer simulations include Bregman-Kanizsa figure-ground separation, Kanizsa stratification, and various lightness percepts, including the Munker-White, Benary cross, and checkerboard percepts.

Topics: Biological Vision, Machine Learning, Models: Boundary Contour System,

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