Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Visual System

Visual System

Light enters the eye through the cornea, a transparent, dome-shaped surface covering the surface of the eyeball that helps to direct and focus incoming light. This light is then channeled toward the pupil, an adjustable opening whose size is controlled by the iris. The iris, a pigmented muscle, regulates the amount of light entering the eye by contracting or dilating the pupil, thereby ensuring optimal light levels for clear vision.
Once through the pupil, the light passes through the lens, a...

Parallel Processing

Parallel Processing

The brain processes sensory information rapidly due to parallel processing, which involves sending data across multiple neural pathways at the same time. This method allows the brain to manage various sensory qualities, such as shapes, colors, movements, and locations, all concurrently. For instance, when observing a forest landscape, the brain simultaneously processes the movement of leaves, the shapes of trees, the depth between them, and the various shades of green. This enables a quick and...

Vision

Vision

Vision is the result of light being detected and transduced into neural signals by the retina of the eye. This information is then further analyzed and interpreted by the brain. First, light enters the front of the eye and is focused by the cornea and lens onto the retina—a thin sheet of neural tissue lining the back of the eye. Because of refraction through the convex lens of the eye, images are projected onto the retina upside-down and reversed.

Color Vision

Color Vision

Color perception begins in the retina, the light-sensitive layer at the back of the eye. Two main theories explain how colors are seen: the trichromatic theory and the opponent-process theory. The trichromatic theory, proposed by Thomas Young in 1802 and extended by Hermann von Helmholtz in 1852, suggests that color vision is based on three types of cone receptors in the retina. These cones are sensitive to different but overlapping ranges of wavelengths corresponding to red, blue, and green.

Gestalt Principles of Perception

Gestalt Principles of Perception

Gestalt principles provide a framework for understanding how humans perceive objects as unified wholes within their context. These principles are essential in explaining the cognitive processes that make sense of complex visual stimuli by organizing them into coherent groups. One fundamental principle is proximity, which posits that objects located close to each other are perceived as a collective group. For instance, when dots are positioned near one another, the visual system interprets them...

Encoding

Encoding

Information enters the brain through encoding, which is the input of information into the memory system. Once sensory information is received from the environment, the brain labels or codes it. The information is then organized with similar information and connected to existing concepts. Encoding occurs through automatic processing and effortful processing.
Automatic processing involves the encoding of details like time, space, frequency, and the meaning of words, usually done without conscious...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Vision as looking and seeing through a bottleneck.

Current opinion in neurobiology·2026

Same author

What are the functions of primary visual cortex (V1)?

Current opinion in neurobiology·2026

Same author

Conduction velocity of intracortical axons in monkey primary visual cortex grows with distance: Implications for computation.

Vision research·2026

Same author

The superficial layers of the primary visual cortex create a saliency map that feeds forward to the parietal cortex.

PLoS biology·2025

Same author

V1 superficial layers create a saliency map that feeds forward to the parietal cortex for attentional guidance.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2025

Same author

Testing the top-down feedback in the central visual field using the reversed depth illusion.

iScience·2025

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 17, 2026

Visualizing Visual Adaptation

Visualizing Visual Adaptation

Published on: April 24, 2017

Theoretical understanding of the early visual processes by data compression and data selection.

¹Department of Psychology, University College London. UK. z.li@ucl.ac.uk

Network (Bristol, England)

|February 8, 2007

Summary

Early vision processing involves information bottlenecks, addressed by data compression and deletion strategies. Theories on retina and V1 explain efficient coding and saliency representation for visual input selection.

More Related Videos

Measuring Attention and Visual Processing Speed by Model-based Analysis of Temporal-order Judgments

Measuring Attention and Visual Processing Speed by Model-based Analysis of Temporal-order Judgments

Published on: January 23, 2017

Investigating Object Representations in the Macaque Dorsal Visual Stream Using Single-unit Recordings

Investigating Object Representations in the Macaque Dorsal Visual Stream Using Single-unit Recordings

Published on: August 1, 2018

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jul 17, 2026

Visualizing Visual Adaptation

Visualizing Visual Adaptation

Published on: April 24, 2017

Measuring Attention and Visual Processing Speed by Model-based Analysis of Temporal-order Judgments

Measuring Attention and Visual Processing Speed by Model-based Analysis of Temporal-order Judgments

Published on: January 23, 2017

Investigating Object Representations in the Macaque Dorsal Visual Stream Using Single-unit Recordings

Investigating Object Representations in the Macaque Dorsal Visual Stream Using Single-unit Recordings

Published on: August 1, 2018

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Computational Vision

Background:

Early visual processing faces information bottlenecks in the optic nerve and attention.
Effective strategies include data compression and deletion for visual input management.

Purpose of the Study:

To review theoretical frameworks for understanding early visual processing.
To explore efficient coding and saliency representation in the retina and V1.

Main Methods:

Review of theoretical work on efficient coding principles.
Examination of hypotheses regarding V1 neural activity and saliency.

Main Results:

Efficient coding explains visual sampling, receptive fields, and input cause decomposition.
V1 activity may represent bottom-up saliencies, linking physiology to pre-attentive selection.

Conclusions:

Both efficient coding and saliency theories offer insights into early visual processing.
Experimental predictions can test the potential and limitations of these theories.