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

Anatomy of the Eyeball01:20

Anatomy of the Eyeball

9.3K
The eye is a spherical, hollow structure composed of three tissue layers. The outer layer — the fibrous tunic, comprises the sclera — a white structure — and the cornea, which is transparent. The sclera encompasses some of the ocular surface, most of which is not visible. However, the 'white of the eye' is distinctively visible in humans compared to other species. The cornea, a clear covering at the front of the eye, enables light penetration. The eye's middle...
9.3K
Vision01:24

Vision

59.2K
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.
59.2K
Visual System01:26

Visual System

1.6K
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...
1.6K
Depth Perception and Spatial Vision01:15

Depth Perception and Spatial Vision

1.7K
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.
1.7K
Photoreceptors and Visual Pathways01:22

Photoreceptors and Visual Pathways

8.6K
At the molecular level, visual signals trigger transformations in photopigment molecules, resulting in changes in the photoreceptor cell's membrane potential. The photon's energy level is denoted by its wavelength, with each specific wavelength of visible light associated with a distinct color. The spectral range of visible light, classified as electromagnetic radiation, spans from 380 to 720 nm. Electromagnetic radiation wavelengths exceeding 720 nm fall under the infrared category,...
8.6K
Perceptual Constancy01:12

Perceptual Constancy

1.2K
Perceptual constancy is the ability to recognize that objects remain consistent and unchanged even when their appearance varies due to changes in sensory input. There are four main types of perceptual constancy: size constancy, shape constancy, color constancy, and brightness constancy.
Size constancy is the recognition that an object remains the same size, even when its image on the retina changes. For instance, a bus is perceived to be large enough to carry people, even if it looks tiny from...
1.2K

You might also read

Related Articles

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

Sort by
Same author

A large positive hysteresis effect for scene categories.

Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance·2026
Same author

A design-integrated framework for neuroarchitectural research.

Frontiers in psychology·2026
Same author

Population receptive field size does not correspond to spatial frequency processing in scene-selective cortex.

Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)·2026
Same author

Fabrication of a Master Mold for Microneedles with a Micron-sized Air-vent Hole.

Journal of visualized experiments : JoVE·2025
Same author

Empirical aesthetics of bridges.

PloS one·2025
Same author

Less is more: Aesthetic liking is inversely related to metabolic expense by the visual system.

PNAS nexus·2025
Same journal

Turbulent flow in a vortex separator with a directed pipe inlet.

Scientific reports·2026
Same journal

Systematic characteristic evaluation of clay-based cementitious material derived from calcium carbide residue and waste tile powder.

Scientific reports·2026
Same journal

Retraction Note: Improvement of a rapid diagnostic application of monoclonal antibodies against avian influenza H7 subtype virus using Europium nanoparticles.

Scientific reports·2026
Same journal

Applying large language models to spam detection in the Kazakh low-resource language setting.

Scientific reports·2026
Same journal

An open-source 3D printing system enabling in-situ freeze-thaw processing of hydrogels.

Scientific reports·2026
Same journal

An enhanced EfficientNet framework for automated waste classification using cosine annealing and label smoothing.

Scientific reports·2026
See all related articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jan 7, 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

8.6K

Contours drive distinct orientation selectivity in the human visual system.

Seohee Han1, Dirk B Walther2

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, 100 St. George Street, Toronto, Canada. seohee.han@mail.utoronto.ca.

Scientific Reports
|December 30, 2025
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Human visual perception prioritizes object contours over filter-based orientation energy for judging natural scenes. This finding highlights the critical role of boundary information in how we see and understand the world.

Keywords:
Contour processingOrientation perceptionScene perceptionVisual cortexfMRI

More Related Videos

Where You Cut Matters: A Dissection and Analysis Guide for the Spatial Orientation of the Mouse Retina from Ocular Landmarks
08:42

Where You Cut Matters: A Dissection and Analysis Guide for the Spatial Orientation of the Mouse Retina from Ocular Landmarks

Published on: August 4, 2018

14.9K
Author Spotlight: An Accurate and Quantitative Approach to Study Visual Feature Selectivity of the Optokinetic Reflex in Mice
09:28

Author Spotlight: An Accurate and Quantitative Approach to Study Visual Feature Selectivity of the Optokinetic Reflex in Mice

Published on: June 23, 2023

3.7K

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jan 7, 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

8.6K
Where You Cut Matters: A Dissection and Analysis Guide for the Spatial Orientation of the Mouse Retina from Ocular Landmarks
08:42

Where You Cut Matters: A Dissection and Analysis Guide for the Spatial Orientation of the Mouse Retina from Ocular Landmarks

Published on: August 4, 2018

14.9K
Author Spotlight: An Accurate and Quantitative Approach to Study Visual Feature Selectivity of the Optokinetic Reflex in Mice
09:28

Author Spotlight: An Accurate and Quantitative Approach to Study Visual Feature Selectivity of the Optokinetic Reflex in Mice

Published on: June 23, 2023

3.7K

Area of Science:

  • Visual perception
  • Neuroscience
  • Computational vision

Background:

  • Orientation processing is crucial for visual perception.
  • The specific image features driving natural scene orientation processing are not fully understood.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether human orientation judgments rely more on object contours or filter-based orientation energy.
  • To determine how the human visual system encodes orientation in natural scenes.

Main Methods:

  • Behavioral experiments measuring orientation judgments on image patches.
  • fMRI data analysis using computational models (Photo-Steerable Pyramid, Line drawing-Steerable Pyramid, Contour-based approach) on the Natural Scenes Dataset.

Main Results:

  • Participant judgments consistently aligned with contour-based orientation estimates, not filter-based ones.
  • Models emphasizing contour structure provided a better explanation of neural fMRI responses.
  • Distinct patterns of orientation preferences were identified in neural data.

Conclusions:

  • The human visual system prioritizes contour information for encoding scene orientation.
  • Object boundaries are more influential than filter-based orientation energy in natural vision.
  • This challenges existing models of visual representation and emphasizes boundary importance.