Keywords

visual attention, inhibition, feedback

Abstract

The featural and spatial specificity of visual representations broadly decrease along the ventral visual stream. The selection of behaviorally relevant information, or attention, must therefore establish spatial correspondence across the visual hierarchy while maintaining behavioral guidance to relevant visual features. Moreover, selection is often accompanied by an inhibitory surround as well as selective inhibition of distractor items. Considering these key functions, we describe a biologically realistic computational theory of visual selection and inhibition through feedforward and feedback signals along the ventral visual stream, complemented by feature-agnostic spatial competition in the pulvinar nuclei. Our model simulates signature visual search behaviors and the N2pc and Pd, which are EEG correlates of attention.

Start Date

15-5-2024 4:00 PM

End Date

15-5-2024 5:00 PM

Location

University Park, PA

modvis_figure_highres2.pdf (101 kB)
figure in high resolution

modvis_acknowledgements_references.pdf (170 kB)
funding acknowledgements and full reference list

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May 15th, 4:00 PM May 15th, 5:00 PM

Feature Integration and Spatial Localization for Attention across the Visual Hierarchy

University Park, PA

The featural and spatial specificity of visual representations broadly decrease along the ventral visual stream. The selection of behaviorally relevant information, or attention, must therefore establish spatial correspondence across the visual hierarchy while maintaining behavioral guidance to relevant visual features. Moreover, selection is often accompanied by an inhibitory surround as well as selective inhibition of distractor items. Considering these key functions, we describe a biologically realistic computational theory of visual selection and inhibition through feedforward and feedback signals along the ventral visual stream, complemented by feature-agnostic spatial competition in the pulvinar nuclei. Our model simulates signature visual search behaviors and the N2pc and Pd, which are EEG correlates of attention.