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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.

Motor and Sensory Areas of the Cortex

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 25, 2026

End-To-End Deep Neural Network for Salient Object Detection in Complex Environments

End-To-End Deep Neural Network for Salient Object Detection in Complex Environments

Published on: December 15, 2023

Neural activities in v1 create a bottom-up saliency map.

Xilin Zhang¹, Li Zhaoping, Tiangang Zhou

¹Department of Psychology and Key Laboratory of Machine Perception (Ministry of Education), Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.

|January 17, 2012

Summary

Researchers identified the neural basis of bottom-up attention. A saliency map, crucial for exogenous attention, originates in the primary visual cortex (V1), not the parietal cortex, challenging prior theories.

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Cognitive Science
Visual Perception

Background:

The neural basis of the saliency map, which guides exogenous attention, remains unclear due to potential top-down signal interference.
Existing models often place saliency map generation in the parietal cortex.

Purpose of the Study:

To identify the neural substrate of the bottom-up saliency map.
To investigate the role of early visual cortex in attentional guidance using subliminal stimuli.

Main Methods:

Utilized orientation-contrast stimuli, imperceptible to observers, to isolate bottom-up attentional effects.
Measured behavioral visual discrimination improvements.
Recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) focusing on the C1 component.
Acquired functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) signals in visual areas.

Main Results:

Attention was attracted to stimuli based on orientation contrast, improving visual discrimination.
Increased orientation contrast led to greater attentional attraction.
The amplitude of the early C1 component (linked to primary visual cortex) and fMRI BOLD signals in V1-V4 correlated with attentional attraction.
Crucially, attentional attraction correlated specifically with C1 amplitude and V1 BOLD signals across participants.

Conclusions:

The findings provide strong evidence for the creation of a bottom-up saliency map within the primary visual cortex (V1).
This challenges the prevailing theory attributing saliency map generation to the parietal cortex.
Suggests V1 plays a critical role in the initial stages of attentional guidance.