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Non-rigid illusory contours and global shape transformations defined by spatiotemporal boundary formation
Gennady Erlikhman1, Yang Z Xing1, Philip J Kellman1
1Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
|January 8, 2015
Summary
Visual perception of shape and motion (spatiotemporal boundary formation) occurs even with continuously changing virtual objects. This demonstrates robust shape perception from minimal visual information, challenging current models.
Area of Science:
- Visual perception
- Computational neuroscience
- Psychophysics
Background:
- Spatiotemporal boundary formation (SBF) explains how the brain perceives form and motion from discrete visual cues.
- Previous research primarily focused on rigidly translating objects.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if spatiotemporal boundary formation (SBF) extends to continuously transforming virtual objects.
- To test the limits of visual perception in forming boundaries and shapes from minimal information.
Main Methods:
- Two experiments presented participants with virtual objects whose edges caused displacements in local texture elements.
- Experiment 1 used rigid objects with changing orientation, scale, and velocity.
- Experiment 2 used non-rigid objects that smoothly changed shape.
Main Results:
- Spatiotemporal boundary formation (SBF) was robustly observed for all tested rigid transformations.
- Non-rigid virtual objects also elicited strong SBF, creating perceptions of smoothly deforming shapes.
- These findings represent extreme cases of boundary and shape perception from minimal visual input.
Conclusions:
- Spatiotemporal boundary formation (SBF) encompasses a broader range of illusory phenomena than previously recognized.
- The results challenge existing computational models of visual boundary and shape perception.
- The brain effectively perceives continuous form and motion even with dynamic, non-rigid visual stimuli.
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