What we see is how we are: New paradigms in visual research
Artículo
Open/ Download
Publication date
2007Metadata
Show full item record
Cómo citar
Maldonado Arbogast, Pedro
Cómo citar
What we see is how we are: New paradigms in visual research
Author
Abstract
As most sensory modalities, the visual system needs to deal with very fast changes in the environment.
Instead of processing all sensory stimuli, the brain is able to construct a perceptual experience by combining
selected sensory input with an ongoing internal activity. Thus, the study of visual perception needs to be
approached by examining not only the physical properties of stimuli, but also the brain’s ongoing dynamical
states onto which these perturbations are imposed. At least three different models account for this internal
dynamics. One model is based on cardinal cells where the activity of few cells by itself constitutes the
neuronal correlate of perception, while a second model is based on a population coding that states that the
neuronal correlate of perception requires distributed activity throughout many areas of the brain. A third
proposition, known as the temporal correlation hypothesis states that the distributed neuronal populations
that correlate with perception, are also defined by synchronization of the activity on a millisecond time
scale. This would serve to encode contextual information by defining relations between the features of visual
objects. If temporal properties of neural activity are important to establish the neural mechanisms of
perception, then the study of appropriate dynamical stimuli should be instrumental to determine how these
systems operate. The use of natural stimuli and natural behaviors such as free viewing, which features fast
changes of internal brain states as seen by motor markers, is proposed as a new experimental paradigm to
study visual perception.
Patrocinador
This study was supported in part by the
Volkswagen Stiftung and the Iniciativa
Científica Milenio, P04-068-F.
Identifier
URI: https://repositorio.uchile.cl/handle/2250/128466
Quote Item
Biol Res 40: 439-450, 2007
Collections