Neural computation in integrity of visual saliency

• Project/Area Number: 26290004
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Neurophysiology / General neuroscience
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: OGAWA TADASHI 京都大学, 次世代研究創成ユニット, 特任教授/プログラムマネージャー (50311197)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 三浦 健一郎 京都大学, 医学研究科, 助教 (20362535)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Project Status: Completed (Fiscal Year 2017)
• Budget Amount: ¥16,380,000 (Direct Cost: ¥12,600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥3,780,000); Fiscal Year 2016: ¥5,330,000 (Direct Cost: ¥4,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,230,000); Fiscal Year 2015: ¥5,330,000 (Direct Cost: ¥4,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,230,000); Fiscal Year 2014: ¥5,720,000 (Direct Cost: ¥4,400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,320,000)
• Keywords: 眼球運動 / saliency / 頭頂葉 / サル / 注意 / 視覚探索 / サリエンシー / サッカード / 顕著性 / 視覚 / LIP

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We trained monkeys to search for a target that was salient in the shape, color dimension, or both dimensions, and recorded the neuronal activity from the lateral intraparietal area (LIP) of monkeys performing visual search. We found two major properties in LIP neurons. First, some LIP neurons enhanced the magnitude of their activity, irrespective of the spatial location of the target, when the target was moderately salient (difficult search condition) than when it was quite salient (easy search condition). This result suggests that these neurons could contribute to enhance the activity of LIP neurons to achieve the neuronal threshold leading the saccade eye movement to the salient target. Moreover, other neurons exhibited the target discriminative activity only in one dimension (shape or color), suggesting that LIP is located at the intermediate stage in the representation visual saliency. Thus, our results revealed the mechanisms underlying neuronal representation of visual saliency.

Research Products

• [Journal Article] 視覚性トップダウン型注意とボトムアップ型注意 (2017)
  • Author(s): 小川 正
  • Journal Title: 脳科学辞典 Volume: -
  • DOI: 10.14931/bsd.7335
  • Open Access
• [Journal Article] Different target-discrimination times can be followed by the same saccade-initiation timing in different stimulus conditions during visual searches (2015)
  • Author(s): Tanaka T, Nishida S, Ogawa T
  • Journal Title: Journal of Neurophysiology Volume: 114 Issue: 1 Pages: 366-230
  • DOI: 10.1152/jn.00043.2015
  • Peer Reviewed / Int'l Joint Research
• [Journal Article] Discharge-rate persistence of baseline activity during fixation reflects maintenance of memory-period activity in the macaque posterior parietal cortex (2015)
  • Author(s): Nishida S, Tanaka T, Shibata T, Ikeda K, Aso T, & Ogawa T*
  • Journal Title: Cerebral Cortex Volume: 24 Issue: 6 Pages: 1671-1685
  • DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bht031
  • Peer Reviewed / Acknowledgement Compliant
• [Journal Article] Transition of target-location signaling in activity of macaque lateral intraparietal neurons during delayed-response visual search (2015)
  • Author(s): Nishida S*, Tanaka T, & Ogawa T
  • Journal Title: Journal of Neurophysiology Volume: 112 Issue: 6 Pages: 1516-1527
  • DOI: 10.1152/jn.00262.2014
  • Peer Reviewed / Acknowledgement Compliant