Neural Correlates of Perceptual Grouping Under Conditions of Inattention and Divided Attention

Carther-Krone, Tiffany; Lawrence‐Dewar, Jane M.; Shomstein, Sarah; Nah, Joseph; Collegio, Andrew; Marotta, Jonathan J.

doi:10.1177/0301006620912134

Cited by 7 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…Previous studies repeatedly showed increased activity in parts of the parietal cortex (especially IPS and supramarginal gyrus) and a decrease in early visual areas (V1, V2) when participants perceived ambiguous stimuli as a grouped illusory Gestalt rather than an array of single elements (Carther-Krone et al, 2020;De-Wit et al, 2012;Fang et al, 2008;Grassi et al, 2016;Murray et al, 2002;Zaretskaya et al, 2013). One study also found subcortical activity in the putamen during the grouped interpretation (Zaretskaya et al, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Increased insula activity precedes the formation of subjective Gestalt

Wilding

Koerner

Ischebeck

et al. 2022

Preprint

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The constructive nature of human perception sometimes leads us to perceiving rather complex impressions from simple sensory input. Bistable stimuli give us a rare opportunity to study the neural mechanisms behind this process. Such stimuli can be visually interpreted as simple or as more complex on the basis of the same sensory input. Previous studies demonstrated increased activity in the superior parietal cortex when participants perceived an illusory Gestalt impression compared to a simpler interpretation of individual elements. Here we tested whether activity related to the illusory Gestalt can be detected not only during, but also prior to it, by examining the slow fluctuations of resting-state-fMRI activity before the stimulus onset. We presented 31 participants with a bistable motion stimulus, which can be perceived either as four moving dot pairs (local) or two moving illusory squares (global). This allowed us to isolate the specific neural mechanisms that accompany the experience of an illusion under matched sensory input. fMRI was used to measure brain activity in a sparse event-related design. We observed stronger IPS and putamen responses to the stimulus when participants perceived the global interpretation compared to local, confirming the previously reported role of these areas in perceptual grouping. Most importantly, we also observed that the global stimulus interpretation was preceded by an increased activity of the bilateral dorsal insula, which is known to process saliency and gate information for conscious access. Our data suggest an important role of the dorsal insula in shaping an internally generated illusory Gestalt percept.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Increased insula activity precedes the formation of subjective Gestalt

Wilding

Koerner

Ischebeck

et al. 2022

Preprint

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“…In humans, the contour illusions are predominantly processed in the cortical areas confined to the visual cortex, mainly in V1 and V2 (Ffytche and Zeki 1996 ; Seghier and Vuilleumier 2006 ). Conversely, the perception of distortion illusions requires also an integration of higher cortical areas responsible for numerical skills and magnitude estimation (Axelrod et al 2017 ; Carther-Krone et al 2020 ; Qiu et al 2008 ; Weidner and Fink 2007 ). To date, it is unknown where exactly the visual illusions are processed in the canine brain.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) are susceptible to the Kanizsa’s triangle illusion

et al. 2021

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The ability to complete partially missing contours is widespread across the animal kingdom, but whether this extends to dogs is still unknown. To address this gap in knowledge, we assessed dogs’ susceptibility to one of the most common contour illusions, the Kanizsa’s triangle. Six dogs were trained to discriminate a triangle from other geometrical figures using a two-alternative conditioned discrimination task. Once the learning criterion was reached, dogs were presented with the Kanizsa’s triangle and a control stimulus, where inducers were rotated around their centre, so as to disrupt what would be perceived as a triangle by a human observer. As a group, dogs chose the illusory triangle significantly more often than control stimuli. At the individual level, susceptibility to the illusion was shown by five out of six dogs. This is the first study where dogs as a group show susceptibility to a visual illusion in the same manner as humans. Moreover, the analyses revealed a negative effect of age on susceptibility, an effect that was also found in humans. Altogether, this suggests that the underling perceptual mechanisms are similar between dogs and humans, and in sharp contrast with other categories of visual illusions to which the susceptibility of dogs has been previously assessed.

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“…Given its role in the dorsal attention network, it is plausible that IPS is more central to intentionally attending to the global form, rather than actually constructing the global perception itself (Weissman & Woldorff, 2005). In contrast, a study using Ponzo illusion stimuli (see Figure 6d) suggests the TPJ is central to integrating the local elements into a global percept even in the absence of attention (Carther-Krone et al, 2020). This finding speaks to the effortlessness of TPJ's contribution.…”

Section: Proposition 1: Ceeing Occurs In Gestalt Cortexmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…First, global perception activates gestalt cortex Carther-Krone et al, 2020;Himmelbach et al, 2009), but global perception also suppresses activity in early visual areas (e.g. V1/V2) associated with the local aspects of perception (Grassi, Zaretskaya, & Bartels, 2017).…”

Section: Proposition 4: Ceeing Leads To Inhibition Of Alternative Construals (Or Their Underlying Elements)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Seeing Minds, Matter, and Meaning: The CEEing Model of Pre-Reflective Subjective Construal

Lieberman¹

2021

Preprint

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Although subjective construal (i.e. our personal understanding of situations and the people and objects within them) has been an enduring topic in social psychology, its underlying mechanisms have never been fully explored. This review presents a model of subjective construals as a kind of seeing (i.e. pre-reflective processes associated with effortless meaning making). Three distinct forms of ‘seeing’ (visual, semantic, and psychological) are discussed to highlight the breadth of these construals. The CEEing Model characterizes these distinct domains of pre-reflective construals as all being Coherent Effortless Experiences. Neural evidence is then reviewed suggesting that a variety of processes that possess the core CEEing characteristics across visual, semantic, and psychological domains can be localized to lateral posterior parietal cortex, lateral posterior temporal cortex, and ventral temporal cortex in an area dubbed gestalt cortex. The link between subjective construals and gestalt cortex is further strengthened by evidence showing that when people have similar subjective construals (i.e. they see things similarly) they show greater neural synchrony (i.e. correlated neural fluctuations over time) with each other in gestalt cortex. The fact that the act of CEEing tends to inhibit alternative construals is discussed as one of multiple reasons for why we fail to appreciate the idiosyncratic nature of our pre-reflective construals, leading to naïve realism and other conflict-inducing outcomes.

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Neural Correlates of Perceptual Grouping Under Conditions of Inattention and Divided Attention

Cited by 7 publications

References 49 publications

Increased insula activity precedes the formation of subjective Gestalt

Increased insula activity precedes the formation of subjective Gestalt

Dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) are susceptible to the Kanizsa’s triangle illusion

Seeing Minds, Matter, and Meaning: The CEEing Model of Pre-Reflective Subjective Construal

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