Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

Vision01:24

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.
Association Areas of the Cortex01:21

Association Areas of the Cortex

Association areas are regions of the cerebral cortex that do not have a specific sensory or motor function. Instead, they integrate and interpret information from various sources to enable higher cognitive processes such as memory, learning, and decision-making. Some key association areas include the following:
Prefrontal Association Area: This area is located in the frontal lobe and is involved in planning, decision-making, and moderating social behavior. It connects with primary motor areas,...
Motor and Sensory Areas of the Cortex01:14

Motor and Sensory Areas of the Cortex

The cerebral cortex, the brain's outermost layer, is pivotal in processing complex cognitive tasks, emotions, and various sensory inputs and executing voluntary motor activities. This intricate structure is divided into three primary functional areas: the motor areas, sensory areas, and association areas.
Motor Areas
The motor areas located in the frontal lobe are central to controlling voluntary movements. This region is further subdivided into the primary motor cortex and the premotor cortex.
Visual System01:26

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...
Gestalt Principles of Perception01:21

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...
Depth Perception and Spatial Vision01:15

Depth Perception and Spatial Vision

Depth perception is the ability to perceive objects three-dimensionally. It relies on two types of cues: binocular and monocular. Binocular cues depend on the combination of images from both eyes and how the eyes work together. Since the eyes are in slightly different positions, each eye captures a slightly different image. This disparity between images, known as binocular disparity, helps the brain interpret depth. When the brain compares these images, it determines the distance to an object.

You might also read

Related Articles

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

Sort by
Same author

Latent class modeling of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation response trajectories in treatment-resistant depression.

Journal of affective disorders·2026
Same author

Signal combination in flutter vibration perception.

PloS one·2026
Same author

Comparing transcranial magnetic stimulation and esketamine treatment response trajectories in resistant depression.

Journal of affective disorders·2026
Same author

Stochastic Approximator of Motor Threshold (SAMT) for Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation: Online Software and Its Performance in Clinical Studies.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (2024)·2026
Same author

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) for comorbid major depressive disorder and hoarding disorder: An open label pilot study.

Journal of affective disorders·2026
Same author

Glaucoma Classification Through SSVEP-Derived ON- and OFF-Pathway Features.

Translational vision science & technology·2026
Same journal

Analysis of human visual experience data.

Journal of vision·2026
Same journal

Pyramid-based Bayesian modeling for high-resolution behavioral analysis.

Journal of vision·2026
Same journal

Sensation without perception: The white whale effect and perceptual blindness in autonomous vehicles.

Journal of vision·2026
Same journal

Gaze behavior during closed-captioned movie viewing adapts to absent audio through more frequent switching between text and scene.

Journal of vision·2026
Same journal

In pursuit of saccade awareness: Limited volitional control and minimal conscious access to catch-up saccades during smooth pursuit eye movements.

Journal of vision·2026
Same journal

Dissociable effects of element-lifetime and stimulus-duration on local and global motion processing: An equivalent noise study.

Journal of vision·2026
See all related articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 29, 2026

Investigating Object Representations in the Macaque Dorsal Visual Stream Using Single-unit Recordings
07:08

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

Published on: August 1, 2018

Figure-ground interaction in the human visual cortex.

Lawrence G Appelbaum1, Alex R Wade, Mark W Pettet

  • 1Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA. greg@duke.edu

Journal of Vision
|October 4, 2008
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Visual scene segmentation relies on boundary cues. Nonlinear interactions in the brain process these cues, with figure/background interactions prominent in visual cortex, aiding object boundary detection.

More Related Videos

In Vivo Visualization of Spontaneous Activity in Neonatal Mouse Sensory Cortex at a Single-Neuron Resolution
06:18

In Vivo Visualization of Spontaneous Activity in Neonatal Mouse Sensory Cortex at a Single-Neuron Resolution

Published on: November 21, 2023

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) of the Visual Cortex with Wide-View Retinotopic Stimulation
07:11

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) of the Visual Cortex with Wide-View Retinotopic Stimulation

Published on: December 8, 2023

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jun 29, 2026

Investigating Object Representations in the Macaque Dorsal Visual Stream Using Single-unit Recordings
07:08

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

Published on: August 1, 2018

In Vivo Visualization of Spontaneous Activity in Neonatal Mouse Sensory Cortex at a Single-Neuron Resolution
06:18

In Vivo Visualization of Spontaneous Activity in Neonatal Mouse Sensory Cortex at a Single-Neuron Resolution

Published on: November 21, 2023

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) of the Visual Cortex with Wide-View Retinotopic Stimulation
07:11

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) of the Visual Cortex with Wide-View Retinotopic Stimulation

Published on: December 8, 2023

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Computational Vision

Background:

  • Object boundaries are crucial for visual scene segmentation.
  • Discontinuities in neural feature maps signal object boundaries.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the role of different boundary cues in visual scene segmentation.
  • To assess figure/background interactions in the visual cortex using electroencephalography (EEG) source imaging.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized multi-input nonlinear analysis and EEG source imaging.
  • Employed synthetic figure/ground displays with varying boundary cues (temporal frequency, orientation, alignment).
  • Recorded neural responses in retinotopically and functionally defined cortical areas.

Main Results:

  • Figure/background interactions were prominent in retinotopic and extra-striate visual areas.
  • These interactions were diminished by removing orientation cues or introducing gaps.
  • Nonlinear interactions carry precise information about texture field continuity.

Conclusions:

  • Nonlinear figure/background interactions are critical for processing boundary continuity.
  • This information is distributed across widespread occipital areas.
  • Visual cortex effectively uses feature discontinuities for scene segmentation.