Roberts, Katherine L., Allen, Harriet A., Dent, Kevin and Humphreys, Glyn W. (2015) Visual search in depth : the neural correlates of segmenting a display into relevant and irrelevant three-dimensional regions. NeuroImage, 122 . pp. 298-305. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2015.07.052

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Abstract

Visual perception is facilitated by the ability to selectively attend to relevant parts of the world and to ignore irrelevant regions or features. In visual search tasks, viewers are able to segment displays into relevant and irrelevant items based on a number of factors including the colour, motion, and temporal onset of the target and distractors. Understanding the process by which viewers prioritise relevant parts of a display can provide insights into the effect of top-down control on visual perception. Here, we investigate the behavioural and neural correlates of segmenting a display, according to the expected three-dimensional (3D) location of a target. We ask whether this segmentation is based on low-level visual features (e.g. common depth or common surface) or on higher-order representations of 3D regions. Similar response-time benefits and neural activity were obtained when items fell on common surfaces or within depth-defined volumes, and when displays were vertical (such that items shared a common depth/disparity) or were tilted in depth. These similarities indicate that segmenting items according to their 3D location is based on attending to a 3D region, rather than a specific depth or surface. Segmenting the items in depth was mainly associated with increased activation in depth-sensitive parietal regions rather than in depth-sensitive visual regions. We conclude that segmenting items in depth is primarily achieved via higher-order, cue invariant representations rather than through filtering in lower-level perceptual regions.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
Divisions:	Faculty of Science > Psychology
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Visual perception -- Testing, Magnetic resonance imaging
Journal or Publication Title:	NeuroImage
Publisher:	Elsevier
ISSN:	1053-8119
Official Date:	15 November 2015
Dates:	Date Event 15 November 2015 Published 26 July 2015 Available 18 July 2015 Accepted 1 July 2015 Submitted
Volume:	122
Page Range:	pp. 298-305
DOI:	10.1016/j.neuroimage.2015.07.052
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Access rights to Published version:	Open Access
Funder:	Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (Great Britain) (BBSRC)
Grant number:	BB/G010919/1 (BBSRC)

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