Color Representation in the Brain: Focus on Orientation Selectivity and Contour Integration

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 21K13757
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 10040:Experimental psychology-related
• Research Institution: Kanazawa University (2022-2023); Ichinoseki National College of Technology (2021)
• Principal Investigator: Sato Tomoharu 金沢大学, 教職総合支援センター, 講師 (30783120)
• Project Period (FY): 2021-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 色覚 / 心理物理学 / 視覚情報処理

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Collinear facilitation is a phenomenon where the detection sensitivity to a target stimulus improves through contour integration when surrounding stimuli share common features with the target, such as orientation and color, and are globally aligned. In this study, I used surrounding stimuli “consisting of stripes formed from a single hue” or “a combination of color and luminance” to measure threshold changes in the target stimulus. Additionally, I measured changes in the perceptual templates in the area where the target stimulus was presented using the Classification Images method. The results showed that while threshold changes due to surrounding stimuli were observed on an individual basis, however there were large individual differences. Therefore, it is possible that individual differences in orientation selectivity and contour integration are based on unique criteria for each subject.

Free Research Field

心理物理学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

周辺刺激による感度変化は本研究で研究対象としたCollinear facilitationは、被験者が検出できるかどうかの閾値を測定する。本研究では主に有彩色に着目して研究を行った。本研究の成果では、周辺刺激による感度変化が見られるものの、個人差が大きかった。Collinear facilitation以外の周辺刺激による感度変化、例えばCrowdingや輪郭統合は、先行研究では大きな個人差は報告されていない。従って、色による方位選択や輪郭統合は、検出が難しいコントラストでは、個人によって判断基準が異なる可能性が考えられる。