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Biomedical subjects

M Dill

Publications and source records attributed to M Dill.

6 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1998

Limited translation invariance of human visual pattern recognition.

Visual object recognition is considered to be largely translation invariant. An earlier study (Foster & Kahn, 1985), however, has indicated that recognition of complex novel stimuli is partially specific to location in the visual field: It is significantly easier to determine the identity of two briefly displayed random patterns if both stimuli are presented at the same, rather than at different, locations. In a series of same/different discrimination tasks, we characterize the processes underlying this "displacement effect": Horizontal and vertical translations are equally effective in reducing performance. Making the task more difficult by increasing pattern similarity leads to even higher positional specificity. The displacement effect disappears after rotation or contrast reversal of the patterns, indicating that positional specificity depends on relatively low levels of processing. Control experiments rule out explanations that are independent of visual pattern memory, such as spatial attention, eye movements, or retinal afterimages. Positional specificity of recognition is found only for same trials. Our results demonstrate that position invariance, a widely acknowledged property of the human visual system, is limited to specific experimental conditions. Normalization models involving mental shifts of an early visual representation or of a window of attention cannot easily account for these findings.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

The role of visual field position in pattern-discrimination learning.

Invariance of object recognition to translation in the visual field is a fundamental property of human pattern vision. In three experiments we investigated this capability by training subjects to distinguish between random checkerboard stimuli. We show that the improvement of discrimination performance does not transfer across the visual field if learning is restricted to a particular location in the retinal image. Accuracy after retinal translation shows no sign of decay over time and remains at the same level it had at the beginning of the training. It is suggested that in two-dimensional translation invariance-as in three-dimensional rotation invariance-the human visual system is relying on memory-intensive rather than computation-intensive processes. Multiple position- and stimulus-specific learning events may be required before recognition is independent of retinal location.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

Visual pattern memory without shape recognition.

Visual pattern memory of Drosophila melanogaster at the torque meter is investigated by a new learning paradigm called novelty choice. In this procedure the fly is first exposed to four identical patterns presented at the wall of the cylinder surrounding it. In the test it has the choice between two pairs of patterns, a new one and one the same as the training pattern. Flies show a lasting preference for the new figure. Figures presented during training are not recognized as familiar in the test, if displayed (i) at a different height, (ii) at a different size, (iii) rotated or (iv) after contrast reversal. No special invariance mechanisms are found. A pixel-by-pixel matching process is sufficient to explain the observed data. Minor transfer effects can be explained if a graded similarity function is assumed. Recognition depends upon the overlap between the stored template and the actual image. The similarity function is best described by the ratio of the area of overlap to the area of the actual image. The similarity function is independent of the geometrical properties of the employed figures. Visual pattern memory at this basic level does not require the analysis of shape.

Animals↗
PubMed1993

Visual pattern recognition in Drosophila involves retinotopic matching.

Honeybees remember the shapes of flowers and are guided by visual landmarks on their foraging trips. How insects recognize visual patterns is poorly understood. Experiments suggest that they try to match retinotopically the incoming visual pattern with a previously stored memory image. But bees can be conditioned to individual pattern parameters such as orientation of contours, colour or size. These and other results are difficult to reconcile with simple template matching. In such investigations, freely moving animals are observed; their behaviour and visual input, therefore, are not well known. Mostly, processing strategies are inferred from stimulus design. We have studied visual pattern recognition with tethered flies (Drosophila melanogaster) in a flight simulator and report here that flies store visual images at, or together with, fixed retinal positions and can retrieve them from there only. Position invariance, an acknowledged property of human pattern recognition, may not exist as a primary mechanism in insects.

Animals↗
PubMed1993

Genetic and molecular analysis of the X chromosomal region 14B17-14C4 in Drosophila melanogaster: loss of function in NONA, a nuclear protein common to many cell types, results in specific physiological and behavioral defects.

We have performed a genetic analysis of the 14C region of the X chromosome of Drosophila melanogaster to isolate loss of function alleles of no-on-transient A (nonA; 14C1-2; 1-52.3). NONA is a nuclear protein common to many cell types, which is present in many puffs on polytene chromosomes. Sequence data suggest that the protein contains a pair of RNA binding motifs (RRM) found in many single-strand nucleic acid binding proteins. Hypomorphic alleles of this gene, which lead to aberrant visual and courtship song behavior, still contain normally distributed nonA RNA and NONA protein in embryos, and in all available alleles NONA protein is present in puffs of third instar larval polytene chromosomes. We find that complete loss of this general nuclear protein is semilethal in hemizygous males and homozygous cell lethal in the female germline. Surviving males show more extreme defects in nervous system function than have been described for the hypomorphic alleles. Five other essential genes that reside within this region have been partially characterized.

Alleles↗