Cortical Representation of Figure-Ground --- Toward Understanding Natural Scenes

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26280047
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Cognitive science
• Research Institution: University of Tsukuba
• Principal Investigator: Sakai Ko 筑波大学, システム情報系, 教授 (80281666)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 山根 ゆか子 大阪大学, 生命機能研究科, 日本学術振興会特別研究員 (70565043) ; 田村 弘 大阪大学, 生命機能研究科, 准教授 (80304038)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 認知科学 / 神経科学 / 脳・神経 / 画像・文章・音声等認識 / 心理物理実験 / 知覚 / 視覚 / 計算神経科学

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The aim of the visual system is to know what objects are located on where in a scene. The segregation of figural regions from a background is a fundamental problem in understanding scenes. Here, we have examined the cortical mechanisms underlying the discrimination of figures from the ground. Specifically, the combination of electrophysiology and computational studies has enabled us to find that a small group of neurons in the intermediate-level visual areas is capable of computing figure-ground discrimination in natural scenes.

Free Research Field

認知神経科学，計算論的神経科学，視覚科学