Abstract
The visual system perceives objects as coherent even when some parts are hidden or discontinuous. How this representation is constructed from local features of many nearby objects is termed the 'binding problem.' Here we manipulate contrast in several drifting gratings that can be perceived as either independent objects or parts of a single object. Contrast modulations that are correlated in time enhance perceptual coherence, whereas uncorrelated modulations impair coherence. Presumably, correlated contrast modulations produce correlated responses in cortical neurons. Therefore, our results are consistent with the hypothesis that temporal correlation of neural activity is important for feature binding.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Haruyuki Kojima, Jeffrey Schall, George Sperling and Zhong-Lin Lu for helpful discussion. This work is supported by the US National Institutes of Health.
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Alais, D., Blake, R. & Lee, SH. Visual features that vary together over time group together over space . Nat Neurosci 1, 160–164 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/414
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/414
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