David W. Bressler

Holistic crowding: Selective interference between configural representations of faces in crowded scenes

It is difficult to recognize an object that falls in the peripheral visual field; it is even more difficult when there are other objects surrounding it. This effect, known as crowding, could be due to interactions between the low-level parts or features of the surrounding objects. Here, we investigated whether crowding can also occur selectively between higher level object representations. Many studies have demonstrated that upright faces, unlike most other objects, are coded holistically. Therefore, in addition to featural crowding within a face (M. Martelli, N. J. Majaj, & D. G. Pelli, 2005), we might expect an additional crowding effect between upright faces due to interference between the higher level holistic representations of these faces. In a series of experiments, we tested this by presenting an upright target face in a crowd of additional upright or inverted faces. We found that recognition was more strongly impaired when the target face was surrounded by upright compared to inverted flanker (distractor) faces; this pattern of results was absent when inverted faces and non-face objects were used as targets. This selective crowding of upright faces by other upright faces only occurred when the target-flanker separation was less than half the eccentricity of the target face, consistent with traditional crowding effects (H. Bouma, 1970; D. G. Pelli, M. Palomares, & N. J. Majaj, 2004). Likewise, the selective interference between upright faces did not occur at the fovea and was not a function of the target-flanker similarity, suggesting that crowding-specific processes were responsible. The results demonstrate that crowding can occur selectively between high-level representations of faces and may therefore occur at multiple stages in the visual system.

Position shifts following crowded second-order motion adaptation reveal processing of local and global motion without awareness

Adaptation to first-order (luminance defined) motion produces not only a motion aftereffect but also a position aftereffect, in which a target patterns perceived location is shifted opposite the direction of adaptation. These aftereffects can occur passively (when the direction of motion adaptation cannot be detected) and remotely (when the target is not at the site of adaptation). Although second-order (contrast defined) motion produces these aftereffects, it is unclear whether they can occur passively or remotely. To address these questions, we conducted two experiments. In the first, we used crowding to remove a local adapters second-order motion from awareness and still found a significant position aftereffect. In the second experiment, we found that the direction of motion in one region of a crowded array could produce a position aftereffect in an unadapted, spatially separated region of the crowded array. The results suggest that second-order motion influences perceived position over a large spatial range even without awareness.

Second-order motion without awareness: Passive adaptation to second-order motion produces a motion aftereffect

Although second-order motion may be detected by early and automatic mechanisms, some models suggest that perceiving second-order motion requires higher-order processes, such as feature or attentive tracking. These types of attentionally mediated mechanisms could explain the motion aftereffect (MAE) perceived in dynamic displays after adapting to second-order motion. Here we tested whether there is a second-order MAE in the absence of attention or awareness. If awareness of motion, mediated by high-level or top-down mechanisms, is necessary for the second-order MAE, then there should be no measurable MAE if the ability to detect directionality is impaired during adaptation. To eliminate the subjects ability to detect directionality of the adapting stimulus, a second-order drifting Gabor was embedded in a dense array of additional crowding Gabors. We found that a significant MAE was perceived even after adaptation to second-order motion in crowded displays that prevented awareness. The results demonstrate that second-order motion can be passively coded in the absence of awareness and without top-down attentional control.

Spatially asymmetric response to moving patterns in the visual cortex: Re-examining the local sign hypothesis

One of the most fundamental functions of the visual system is to code the positions of objects. Most studies, especially those using fMRI, widely assume that the location of the peak retinotopic activity generated in the visual cortex by an object is the position assigned to that object-this is a simplified version of the local sign hypothesis. Here, we employed a novel technique to compare the pattern of responses to moving and stationary objects and found that the local sign hypothesis is false. By spatially correlating populations of voxel responses to different moving and stationary stimuli in different positions, we recovered the modulation transfer function for moving patterns. The results show that the pattern of responses to a moving object is best correlated with the response to a static object that is located behind the moving one. The pattern of responses across the visual cortex was able to distinguish object positions separated by about 0.25 deg visual angle, equivalent to approximately 0.25 mm cortical distance. We also found that the position assigned to a pattern is not simply dictated by the peak activity-the shape of the luminance envelope and the resulting shape of the population response, including the shape and skew in the response at the edges of the pattern, influences where the visual cortex assigns the objects position. Therefore, visually coded position is not conveyed by the peak but by the overall profile of activity.