CHAPTER 3: Neural Processing and Perception

I. Lateral Inhibition and Perception

Neural processingthe interaction of the signals in many
neurons.
A.

Lateral Inhibition in the Limulus

Lateral inhibitioninhibition that is transmitted across

the retina
Ommatidia - tiny structures in the Limulus eye
B.

Lateral Inhibition and Lightness Perception

Lightnessthe perception of shades ranging from white

to gray to black.
(1) The Hermann Grid: Seeing Spots at Intersections
(2) Mach Bands: Seeing Borders More Sharply
(3) Simultaneous
contrastoccurs
when
our
perception of the brightness or color of one area
is affected by the presence of an adjacent or
surrounding area.
C. A Display That Cant Be Explained by Lateral
Inhibition
Whites illusion- Rectangle A, which appears to be resting
on the white area under the black bars, looks much
darker than rectangle B, which appears to be located on
the black bars
Belongingness- states that an areas appearance is
influenced by the part of the surroundings to which the
area appears to belong

Center-surround antagonism- comes into play when the

spot of light becomes large enough that it begins to
cover the inhibitory area, as in (c) and (d).
Neural circuit- a group of interconnected neurons.
B. Hubel and Wiesels
Receptive Fields

Rationale

for

Studying

Hubel and Wiesel- state their tactic for understanding

vision as follows: One approach . . . is to stimulate the
retina with patterns of light while recording from single
cells or fibers at various points along the visual pathway.
For each cell, the optimum stimulus can be determined,
and one can note the characteristics common to cells at
each level in the visual pathway, and compare a given
level with the next
Cerebral cortex- the 24 mm thick covering of the brain
that plays a central role in determining perception and
cognition
Occipital lobe- is the visual receiving areathe place
where signals from the retina and LGN first reach the
cortex
Superior colliculus- which receives some signals from the
eye; plays an important role in controlling movements of
the eyes.
Striate cortex- the visual receiving area; it has a striped
appearance when viewed in cross section, or area V1 to
indicate that it is the first visual area in the cortex.
C. Receptive Fields of Neurons in the Visual Cortex
Simple cortical
receptive fields

cells-

cells

with

these

side-by-side

II. Processing From Retina to Visual Cortex and Beyond

A.

Responding of Single Fibers in the Optic Nerve

Neurons orientation tuning curve- determined by

measuring the responses of a simple cortical cell to bars
with different orientations.

Nerve fibers receptive field- the region of the retina that

must receive illumination in order to obtain a response in
any given fiber

Simple cells- respond to small spots of light or to

stationary stimuli.

Center-surround organization- the area in the center of

the receptive field responds differently to light than the
area in the surround of the receptive field

Complex cells- respond best to bars of a particular

orientation; respond only when a correctly oriented bar of
light moves across the entire receptive field

Excitatory area of the receptive field- presenting a spot of

light to the center increases firing

End-stopped cells- fire to moving lines of a specific length

or to moving corners or angles.

Inhibitory area of the receptive field- stimulation of the

surround causes a decrease in firing

Feature detectors- simple, complex, and end-stopped

cells are called this because they fire in response to
specific features of the stimulus, such as orientation or
direction of movement

Excitatory-center, inhibitory-surround receptive field- this

receptive field.
Inhibitory-center, excitatory-surround receptive field- the
receptive field which responds with inhibition when the
center is stimulated and excitation when the surround is
stimulated.
Center-surround receptive fields- important because it
showed that neural processing could result in neurons
that respond best to specific patterns of illumination.

Neural plasticity or experience-dependent plasticity- the

idea that the response properties of neurons can be
shaped by perceptual experience.
C. Higher-Level Neurons
Prosopagnosia- people with temporal lobe damage were
unable to recognize faces.
IV. The Sensory Code
A. Specificity Coding: Representation by the Firing of
a Specialized Neuron
Sensory coding- how the firing of neurons represents
various characteristics of the environment.

III. Do Feature Detectors Play a Role in Perception?

A.

Selective Adaptation

Selective adaptation- firing causes neurons to eventually

become fatigued, or adapt; this adaptation causes two
physiological effects: (1) the neurons fi ring rate
decreases, and (2) the neuron fi res less when that
stimulus is immediately presented again.
METHOD Psychophysical Measurement of the Effect of
Selective Adaptation to Orientation
(1) Measure a persons contrast threshold to gratings
with a number of different orientations.
Gratings contrast threshold- the minimum intensity
difference between two adjacent bars that can just be
detected
(2) Adapt the person to one orientation by having
the person view a high-contrast adapting
stimulus for a minute or two
(3) Premeasure the contrast threshold of all the test
stimuli presented in step 1.
B.

Selective Rearing

selective rearing- an animal is reared in an environment

that contains only certain types of stimuli, then neurons
that respond to these stimuli will become more
prevalent.

specificity coding- the idea that the fi ring of single

neurons is the key to understanding sensory coding;
proposes that a particular object is represented by the
firing of a neuron that responds only to that object and to
no other objects.
B. Distributed Coding: Representation by the Firing
of Large Groups of Neurons
Distributed coding- the representation of a particular
object by the pattern of fi ring of a large number of
neurons.
C. Sparse Coding: Representation by the Firing of a
Small Number of Neurons
Sparse coding- occurs when a particular object is
represented by a pattern of firing of only a small group of
neurons, with the majority of neurons remaining silent.
V. The MindBody Problem
Mindbody problem- how do physical processes such as
nerve impulses or sodium and potassium molecules
flowing across membranes (the body part of the problem)
become transformed into the richness of perceptual
experience (the mind part of the problem)?
Research on the neural correlate of consciousness (NCC)
- Research on sensory coding, which focuses on the
relationship between stimuli in the environment and how
neurons fire, where consciousness can roughly be defined
as our experiences.