Attention in Early Vision: Some Psychophysical Insights

  • Authors:
  • Kuntal Ghosh;Sankar K. Pal

  • Affiliations:
  • Center for Soft Computing Research, Indian Statistical Institute, 203 B.T. Road, Kolkata-700108, India;Center for Soft Computing Research, Indian Statistical Institute, 203 B.T. Road, Kolkata-700108, India

  • Venue:
  • Attention in Cognitive Systems. Theories and Systems from an Interdisciplinary Viewpoint
  • Year:
  • 2008

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Abstract

The Spotlight Models of attention that rely upon a bottom-up approach specifically through the dorsal pathways, can be modeled using multi-scale Gaussian pyramids with excitatory-inhibitory feedforward cellular neural networks (CNN) as feature detectors. Here we propose a modified disinhibitory zero-feedback CNN model derived out of a linear combination of three Gaussians only, that explains many brightness perception based psychophysical phenomena unexplainable with the old model and in the process predicts three different input cloning templates for global smoothing, global enhancement, as well as controlled smoothing and enhancement of retinal images within the focus of attention. The proposed approach provides new clues, based on the psychophysical stimuli, suggestive of a role of top-down attentional control possibly through the ventral pathways, even at the stage of low-level vision.