Neural Activities in V1 Create a Bottom-Up Saliency Map

Zhang, Xilin; Li, Zhaoping; Zhou, Tiangang; Fang, Fang

doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2011.10.035

Cited by 193 publications

(191 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…1A, yellow), which is thought to be the core determinant of attention and gaze (4,5). To date, most studies have reported evidence of saliency and/or priority maps in a distributed network of cortical brain areas [e.g., primary visual cortex (V1) (6)(7)(8)(9), visual area 4 (V4) (10), lateral intraparietal area (LIP) (11)(12)(13), and frontal eye fields (14,15)]. However, there is mounting evidence for a subcortical saliency mechanism in the premammalian optic tectum (16)(17)(18) or superior colliculus (SC) in primates (Fig.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Superior colliculus encodes visual saliency before the primary visual cortex

White

Kan

Lévy

et al. 2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

121

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Models of visual attention postulate the existence of a bottom-up saliency map that is formed early in the visual processing stream. Although studies have reported evidence of a saliency map in various cortical brain areas, determining the contribution of phylogenetically older pathways is crucial to understanding its origin. Here, we compared saliency coding from neurons in two early gateways into the visual system: the primary visual cortex (V1) and the evolutionarily older superior colliculus (SC). We found that, while the response latency to visual stimulus onset was earlier for V1 neurons than superior colliculus superficial visual-layer neurons (SCs), the saliency representation emerged earlier in SCs than in V1. Because the dominant input to the SCs arises from V1, these relative timings are consistent with the hypothesis that SCs neurons pool the inputs from multiple V1 neurons to form a feature-agnostic saliency map, which may then be relayed to other brain areas.M ost theories and computational models of saliency postulate that visual input is transformed into a topographic representation of visual conspicuity (Fig. 1A, red), whereby certain stimuli stand out from others based on low-level features of the input image (Fig. 1A, blue) (1-3). The concept of a priority map describes a combined representation of visual saliency and behavioral relevancy (Fig. 1A, yellow), which is thought to be the core determinant of attention and gaze (4, 5). To date, most studies have reported evidence of saliency and/or priority maps in a distributed network of cortical brain areas [e.g., primary visual cortex (V1) (6-9), visual area 4 (V4) (10), lateral intraparietal area (LIP) (11-13), and frontal eye fields (14, 15)]. However, there is mounting evidence for a subcortical saliency mechanism in the premammalian optic tectum (16-18) or superior colliculus (SC) in primates (Fig. 1B). The primate SC, which has received a lot of attention for its role as an oculomotor hub, might be considered an unlikely candidate for a visual salience map, but there is a rich history of research on visual attention in the SC (a recent review is in ref. 19), which has broadened our perspective of its role in processes previously thought to be the domain of neocortex.The SC (Fig. 1B) is multilayered but is often described as having two dominant functional layers, a superior colliculus superficial layer (SCs) associated exclusively with visual processing and a superior colliculus multisensory-cognitive-motor intermediate layer (SCi) linked to the control of attention and gaze (19)(20)(21)(22). Because SCs is interconnected with multiple visual areas (23-25), it is in an ideal location to pool diverse visual inputs to form a feature-agnostic saliency representation. Recently (26), it has been shown that the activity of SCs neurons, with dominant inputs that arise from the retina and V1 (Fig. 1B) (24, 25), is well-predicted by a computational saliency model that has been validated on the free viewing behavior of humans (27) and nonhuman prima...

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Superior colliculus encodes visual saliency before the primary visual cortex

White

Kan

Lévy

et al. 2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

121

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“…However, attentional phenomena discovered in the lab do not always extend to real-world tasks. For example, Hayhoe and colleagues showed that whereas perceptual saliency is a major factor driving attention in laboratory tasks (Itti & Koch, 2001;Li, 2002;Theeuwes, 1994;Zhang, Zhaoping, Zhou, & Fang, 2012), it has virtually no impact on realistic tasks (Foulsham et al, 2014; for a review, see Tatler, Hayhoe, Land, & Ballard, 2011). In addition, the spatial reference frame used to code attended locations is more flexible in an outdoor search task than on a computer (Jiang & Won, 2015;Jiang, Won, Swallow, & Mussack, 2014).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Statistical learning modulates the direction of the first head movement in a large-scale search task

Won

Lee

Jiang

2015

Atten Percept Psychophys

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Foraging and search tasks in everyday activities are often performed in large, open spaces, necessitating head and body movements. Such activities are rarely studied in the laboratory, leaving important questions unanswered regarding the role of attention in large-scale tasks. Here we examined the guidance of visual attention by statistical learning in a large-scale, outdoor environment. We used the orientation of the first head movement as a proxy for spatial attention and examined its correspondence with reaction time (RT). Participants wore a lightweight camera on a baseball cap while searching for a coin on the concrete floor of a 64-m 2 outdoor space. We coded the direction of the first head movement at the start of a trial. The results showed that the first head movement was highly sensitive to the location probability of the coin and demonstrated more rapid adjustment to changes in environmental statistics than RTs did. Because the first head movement occurred ten times faster than the search RT, these results show that visual statistical learning affected attentional orienting early in large-scale tasks.

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“…The dominant view that a saliency map is generated in the parietal cortex has been challenged because a bottomup saliency map is created in V1 [1] . Likely, an increase in brain magnesium enhances both short-term synaptic facilitation and long-term potentiation and improves learning and memory functions [3][4][5] . Moreover, long non-coding…”

Section: Neural Circuit Research In Emotion and Memorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Grand Research Plan for Neural Circuits of Emotion and Memory — Current status of neural circuit studies in China

2013

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During recent years, major advances have been made in neuroscience, i.e., asynchronous release, threedimensional structural data sets, saliency maps, magnesium in brain research, and new functional roles of long non-coding RNAs. Especially, the development of optogenetic technology provides access to important information about relevant neural circuits by allowing the activation of specific neurons in awake mammals and directly observing the resulting behavior. The Grand Research Plan for Neural Circuits of Emotion and Memory was launched by the National Natural Science Foundation of China. It takes emotion and memory as its main objects, making the best use of cutting-edge technologies from medical science, life science and information science. In this paper, we outline the current status of neural circuit studies in China and the technologies and methodologies being applied, as well as studies related to the impairments of emotion and memory. In this phase, we are making efforts to repair the current deficiencies by making adjustments, mainly involving four aspects of core scientific issues to investigate these circuits at multiple levels. Five research directions have been taken to solve important scientific problems while the Grand Research Plan is implemented. Future research into this area will be multimodal, incorporating a range of methods and sciences into each project. Addressing these issues will ensure a bright future, major discoveries, and a higher level of treatment for all affected by debilitating brain illnesses.

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Neural Activities in V1 Create a Bottom-Up Saliency Map

Cited by 193 publications

References 61 publications

Superior colliculus encodes visual saliency before the primary visual cortex

Superior colliculus encodes visual saliency before the primary visual cortex

Statistical learning modulates the direction of the first head movement in a large-scale search task

Grand Research Plan for Neural Circuits of Emotion and Memory — Current status of neural circuit studies in China

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