Lecture 15

Seeing and perceiving: how brains see 2

Prof. André Fenton (afenton@[Link])

Dr. Darryl Watkins dw3083@[Link]

Alisha Ahmed aaa9861@[Link]
Luke Arend laa9607@[Link]
 Today’s important idea:

Neurons at progressive levels of the

visual system have progressively
more complex (different) receptive
fields
 LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Understand the general concept of a receptive field

• Understand lateral inhibition and how it creates on/off-center

off/on-surround retinal receptive fields

• Understand how visual receptive fields are organized and change

at different levels of the visual system

• Understand how to create linear receptive field responses from

cells with circular receptive field responses

• Recognize the various structure function relationships

(parvo/magno cellular pathways, retinotopy, columnar organization
of functionally similar cells – ocular dominance, orientation tuning)

• Understand problems with the hierarchical model of the visual

system and the alternative spatial frequency mode

• Understand the gross organization of the visual pathways

 Watch the video

[Link]
OUTLINE

Retinal receptive fields

Higher order receptive fields

The hierarchical model and the spatial frequency
model of visual information processing
Brightness is
created by the
visual system

Edward H. Adelson
Brightness perception is influenced by
lateral inhibition
- interconnected neurons inhibit their
neighbors and produce contrast
 Lateral Inhibition in the Retina

Similar mechanism
for touch
Muscle control
Movement …
The Effect of Context on the Perception of Brightness
The effect of lateral inhibition on the perception of
brightness
Visual Context Determines Brightness Perception
The Effect of experience on the perception of Brightness
Brightness is created by the visual
system by lateral inhibition
- i.e. interconnected neurons inhibit
their neighbors and produce contrast
Lateral Inhibition in the Retina
Signal processing by the secondary sensory neuron

bipolar cells
Open Na+
Closed Na+ channels
channels Metabotropic
GluR
Ionotropic
GluR
Receptive Fields of Retinal Cells – type 1
Receptive Fields of Retinal Cells – type 2
 The receptive field of a sensory cell consists
of the stimulus region and the features that
excite or inhibit the cell.

[Link]
OUTLINE

Retinal receptive fields

Higher order receptive fields

The hierarchical model and the spatial frequency

model of visual information processing
Recap:
The receptive field of a sensory cell consists
of the stimulus region and the features that
excite and/or inhibit the cell.
At rest, photoreceptors steadily release
glutamate.
Glutamate depolarizes some bipolar cells and
hyperpolarizes others, depending on the type
of glutamate receptor the cell possesses.
Signal processing by the secondary sensory neuron

bipolar cells
Open Na+
Closed Na+ channels
channels Metabotropic
GluR
Ionotropic
GluR
Recap:
On-center bipolar cells—turning on light in
the center of the field excites the cells
They have inhibitory metabotropic GluRs
They receive less glutamate and are
depolarized
Off-center bipolar cells—turning off light in
the center of the field excites the cells
They have excitatory ionotropic GluRs
They receive more glutamate and are
depolarized
Recap:
Bipolar cells release glutamate, which
always depolarizes ganglion cells.
• On-center bipolar cells excite on-
center ganglion cells when light is
turned on.
• Off-center bipolar cells excite off-
center ganglion cells when light is
turned off.
Recap:
Secondary sensory neurons in the
retina and LGN have 2 types of
concentric receptive fields.
• On-center/off-surround
• Off-center/on-surround
The center and its surround are always
antagonistic.
Where does the lateral inhibition come from?
Horizontal cells Amacrine cells
Lateral inhibition explains center-surround receptive fields
Neurons at Different Levels of the Visual
System Have Very Different Receptive Fields
The primate visual
system

cortex

thalamus

midbrain

periphery
The lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN)
of mammals has six main layers:
• Parvocellular—four dorsal layers of
the LGN—small cells, small receptive
fields
• Magnocellular—two ventral layers—
large cells, large receptive fields
The Lateral Geniculate Nucleus (LGN) of the thalamus

Parvocellular
(color discriminating)

Magnocellular
(not color discriminating)
Two main types of retinal ganglion cells:
• Small ganglion cells (with input from single cones)
project to the parvocellular layer of the LGN and can
discriminate color.
• Large ganglion cells (with input from many cones)
project to the magnocellular layer of the LGN which
can not discriminate color.
OUTLINE

Retinal receptive fields

Higher order receptive fields
The hierarchical model and the spatial frequency
model of visual information processing
The categorization of receptive fields
can be described as hierarchical.
More complex events are built up from
inputs of simpler ones.
Neurons in the visual cortex have more complicated
receptive fields.
Simple cortical cells—also called bar or edge
detectors—respond to an edge or bar of a
particular width, orientation, and location.
Complex cortical cells also respond to a bar of a
particular width and orientation but may be
located within a larger area of the visual field.
[Link]
LGN

V1

V5/MT
Circular receptive fields can combine to produce rod-shaped
receptive fields

A simple cell

A complex cell
V1 (primary visual cortex) perceives objects and
events and is necessary in forming mental
images.
Other cortical areas—V2, V4, and the inferior
temporal lobe—are involved in perception of form.
V5, also called the medial temporal area (MT), is
specialized for motion perception.
There are theoretical and empirical
problems with a hierarchical model of
vision.
…the cortex would need a
phenomenal number of feature
detectors...
Are there “super duper complex cells” like grandmother cells?
Quiroga et al., 2005, Nature
 Proceed, but only for interest and joy…
The material that follows will not be examined
The spatial-frequency filter model
emphasizes Fourier analysis of visual
stimuli.
Spatial frequency of a visual
stimulus—the number of light—dark
(or color) cycles per degree of visual
space
Cortical cell responses are tuned more
accurately to spatial frequency grids
than to bar widths.
The cell’s receptive field has an
excitatory axis and bands of inhibition
on the side; their spacing shows the
frequency tuning.
Spatial Frequencies
Spatial Frequencies and Orientations
The visual system has multiple
channels tuned to different spatial
frequencies.
Complex stimuli, such as faces, can be
broken down into individual spatial-
frequency components for
recognition.
 Mona Lisa’s ambiguous smile

Low frequencies Medium frequencies High frequencies