Figure-ground mechanisms provide structure for selective attention.

@article{citeulike:1747825, abstract = {Attention depends on figure-ground organization: figures draw attention, whereas shapes of the ground tend to be ignored. Recent research has revealed mechanisms for figure-ground organization in the visual cortex, but how these mechanisms relate to the attention process remains unclear. Here we show that the influences of figure-ground organization and volitional (top-down) attention converge in single neurons of area V2 in Macaca mulatta. Although we found assignment of border ownership for attended and for ignored figures, attentional modulation was stronger when the attended figure was located on the neuron's preferred side of border ownership. When the border between two overlapping figures was placed in the receptive field, responses depended on the side of attention, and enhancement was generally found on the neuron's preferred side of border ownership. This correlation suggests that the neural network that creates figure-ground organization also provides the interface for the top-down selection process.}, address = {Krieger Mind/Brain Institute and Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA.}, author = {Qiu, Fangtu T T. and Sugihara, Tadashi and von der Heydt, R\"{u}diger }, citeulike-article-id = {1747825}, doi = {10.1038/nn1989}, issn = {1097-6256}, journal = {Nat Neurosci}, keywords = {attention, border\_ownership, v2}, month = {October}, posted-at = {2008-02-25 14:54:25}, priority = {2}, title = {Figure-ground mechanisms provide structure for selective attention.}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nn1989}, year = {2007} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:1747825 L3 - citeulike-article-id:1747825 TI - Figure-ground mechanisms provide structure for selective attention. JF - Nat Neurosci AD - Krieger Mind/Brain Institute and Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA. SN - 1097-6256 N2 - Attention depends on figure-ground organization: figures draw attention, whereas shapes of the ground tend to be ignored. Recent research has revealed mechanisms for figure-ground organization in the visual cortex, but how these mechanisms relate to the attention process remains unclear. Here we show that the influences of figure-ground organization and volitional (top-down) attention converge in single neurons of area V2 in Macaca mulatta. Although we found assignment of border ownership for attended and for ignored figures, attentional modulation was stronger when the attended figure was located on the neuron's preferred side of border ownership. When the border between two overlapping figures was placed in the receptive field, responses depended on the side of attention, and enhancement was generally found on the neuron's preferred side of border ownership. This correlation suggests that the neural network that creates figure-ground organization also provides the interface for the top-down selection process. KW - attention KW - border_ownership KW - v2 AU - Qiu, Fangtu T AU - Sugihara, Tadashi AU - von der Heydt, Rüdiger PY - 2007/10/07/ UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nn1989 ER -