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Illusions of filled lateral and angular extent

The role of cortical feature detectors

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Summary

The common principle of the illusions found by Helmholtz and Botti is the overestimation of a filled extent. They differ in that Helmholtz's illusions of filled angular extent can be accounted for in terms of spatial two-line interactions, whereas Botti's illusions of filled lateral extent cannot. The former observation is consistent with the assumption of interacting orientation-detectors in the visual cortex. The Botti illusion probably depends on global computation in the visual system.

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Holder of a Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Heisenberg Research Fellowship

Supported by a grant from the Schweizerische Nationalfonds

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Rentschler, I., Hilz, R., Sütterlin, C. et al. Illusions of filled lateral and angular extent. Exp Brain Res 44, 154–158 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00237336

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00237336

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