Principles of gamma synchrony predict figure-ground perception in texture stimuli

Gamma synchrony is ubiquitous in visual cortex, but whether it contributes to perceptual grouping remains contentious based on observations that gamma frequency is not consistent across stimulus features and that gamma synchrony depends on distances between image elements. These stimulus dependencies have been argued to challenge the idea that the visual system groups image elements by synchronizing the neural assemblies that encode them. Here, we argue instead that these dependencies may shape synchrony in perceptually meaningful ways. Indeed, according to the theory of weakly coupled oscillators (TWCO), synchrony-based grouping mechanisms require stimulus dependence. Synchronization among coupled oscillators depends on frequency dissimilarity and coupling strength, which in early visual cortex relate to local feature dissimilarity and physical distance, respectively. We manipulated these factors in a texture segregation experiment wherein human observers identified the orientation of a figure defined by reduced contrast heterogeneity compared to the background. Human performance followed TWCO predictions both qualitatively and quantitatively, as formalized in a computational model. Moreover, we found that when enriched with a Hebbian learning rule, our model also predicted human learning effects: Increases in model gamma synchrony due to perceptual learning predicted improvements in texture segregation across sessions. Taken together, our data suggest that the stimulus-dependence of gamma synchrony captures local image statistics and is linked to the stimulus-dependence of texture segregation, and that the effect of visual experience on gamma synchrony provides a viable perceptual learning mechanism for training-induced improvements in texture segregation. Our results suggest that gamma synchrony with its inherent stimulus dependencies can provide a plausible mechanistic basis for perceptual grouping and visual scene segmentation.