Abstract
Anatomical and physiological data from lower primates, and psychophysical data from humans, is used to construct a quantitative model of the local and global map structure (functional architecture) of human striate cortex. A series of successful estimates deriving from this model are reviewed, including a prediction for the width of human ocular dominance columns, which has recently been verified. A variety of perceptual phenomena are then discussed, from the point of view of cortical, rather than retinal, topography. It is suggested that the striate cortex may be viewed as a “cyclopean retina” whose non-linear map structure, summarized in terms of a concatenated complex logarithmic pattern, suggests insights into the nature of the Mackay complimentary image, the Frazer spiral, fortification illusions, and the relationship of the second order statistics of a visual stimulus to pre-attentive (textural) segmentation. Finally, the nature of neuronal representation is considered in the context of recent models of perceptual and cognitive function. It is suggested that anatomical re-mapping at successive stages of the CNS may provide a conceptual alternative to conventional single cell and connectionist models, and offers a viable approach towards a “field” theory of vision.
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Schwartz, E.L. A quantitative model of the functional architecture of human striate cortex with application to visual illusion and cortical texture analysis. Biol. Cybernetics 37, 63–76 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00364246
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00364246