V1 as an egocentric cognitive map

Abstract

We typically distinguish between V1 as an egocentric perceptual map and the hippocampus as an allocentric cognitive map. In this article, we argue that V1 also functions as a post-perceptual egocentric cognitive map. We argue that three well-documented functions of V1, namely (i) the estimation of distance, (ii) the estimation of size, and (iii) multisensory integration, are better understood as post-perceptual cognitive inferences. This argument has two important implications. First, we argue that V1 must function as the neural correlates of the visual perception/cognition distinction and suggest how this can be accommodated by V1’s laminar structure. Second, we use this insight to propose a low-level account of visual consciousness in contrast to mid-level accounts (recurrent processing theory; integrated information theory) and higher-level accounts (higher-order thought; global workspace theory). Detection thresholds have been traditionally used to rule out such an approach, but we explain why it is a mistake to equate visibility (and therefore the presence/absence of visual experience) with detection thresholds.

Neural substrates of spatial processing and navigation in blindness: An activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis

“…It therefore seems that in the blind, visual areas in the occipital cortex maintain their function and form lower-level cortical maps of the perceived sensory information, similarly to frontoparietal networks. These new cortical maps are mostly egocentric and comparable to the retinotopic maps found in sighted subjects ( Linton, 2021 ). It is theorized that this cross-modal recruitment in EB might arise from: (1) strengthened cortico-cortical connections between the occipital cortex with other sensory cortices and parietal associative areas ( Wittenberg et al, 2004 ; Ptito et al, 2005 ; Kupers et al, 2006 ); or (2) new connections between the sensory nuclei of the thalamus enabling non-visual sensory information to arrive directly to the occipital cortex via the optic radiations ( Kupers and Ptito, 2014 ; Müller et al, 2019 ).…”

Minimal theory of 3D vision: new approach to visual scale and visual shape

“…But if this is correct, then every object in the same region of the 2D image should be equally distorted. However, this is not what we experience, since the bounding boxes in figure 18b are much less distorted than the cars, even though they occupy the exact same region of the image [27,169]. Now it's important to understand that image warping and pictorial size constancy are exactly the same claim.…”

“…My emphasis on resolving rivalry relative to the fovea is also critically important for resolving a fundamental tension in the neuroscience literature [27]. On the one hand, there is increasing evidence of highly cognitive processing in the primary visual cortex (V1) (which I review in [27]), from the integration of vision and location [31], to potentially the semantic category of sounds [32]. On the other hand, so far as stereo vision is concerned (the most basic and low-level aspect of 3D vision [24,33,34]), V1 is thought to be merely a preliminary feed-forward stage, with depth perception coming much later [35][36][37].…”

“…So, rather than stereo vision being a problem to be solved (how to estimate the 3D properties of the world from the two eyes), stereo vision is the solution to a very different—and purely internal—problem (eradication of rivalry between the two retinal images [ 27 ]). The visual system is trying to fit the two retinal images together like a 3D jigsaw to see what emerges.…”

“…On my account, all that stereo vision is doing is eradicating the rivalry of each individual point by re-locating it in depth. The interpretation of it as a single ‘surface’ is a further, purely cognitive, step [ 27 ].

Figure 10 Stereogram from [ 29 ].

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