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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Body locus and form perception.

Forms were drawn on the palms, forearms, or biceps of 42 subjects, with vision excluded. Subjects were then required to make a visual match to the drawn forms. It was expected that the accuracy of form recognition would be a direct function of the sensitivity of the receptor surface. Thus the palm was expected to yield more accurate form recognition than the forearm or bicep. Form recognition was significantly worse on the forearm than on other skin locations. The adequacy of a skin surface as an information transducer does not appear to be a simple function of cutaneous sensitivity since there was no significant difference in the accuracy of form recognition between the palm and bicep.

Arm↗

Neural networks active during tactile form perception: common and differential activity during macrospatial and microspatial tasks.

Prior studies have shown that tactile perception recruits activity not only in somatosensory but also in visual cortical areas. The present study used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate the distribution of neural activity during tactile perception of 2D form. In a macrospatial form task, raised letters (uppercase T and V) were presented upside-down. In a microspatial form task, a bar, either with or without a gap, was presented. Stimuli were applied to the immobilized right index fingerpad. Six neurologically normal volunteers were studied in a block design paradigm, with alternating blocks of rest and covert discrimination between the two alternatives for a task. Each task was studied in a separate run. Contrasting macrospatial form discrimination against rest revealed activity in an extensive, bilateral network of cortical and subcortical regions, including areas of somatosensory cortex and the intraparietal sulcus (IPS), occipito-temporal cortex, dorsal and ventral premotor cortex, medial superior frontal cortex, lateral inferior frontal cortex, thalamus and cerebellar hemispheres. Contrasting (microspatial) gap detection against rest showed activity in a similar network, with the notable exception of the occipito-temporal cortical regions. A direct contrast between the two tasks yielded greater activity for the macrospatial than microspatial task in these occipito-temporal regions bilaterally, and also in foci near the right IPS and in the right cerebellar hemisphere. The occipito-temporal cortical activations were in the lateral occipital complex, a part of the ventral visual pathway active during visual form perception. Thus, macrospatial form perception preferentially recruits this region of extrastriate visual cortex, compared to microspatial form perception.

Adult↗

Effects of early common features on form perception.

Recognizing forms may involve a contingency in which later processing is modified, depending on the results of early analyses. This hypothesis can be distinguished from feature models, in which features (including early global features) accumulate over time. In four experiments, shape primes were presented briefly, followed immediately and in the same location by a similarly or differently shaped target, and then a mask. Accuracy was measured with a two-alternative forced-choice discrimination. The primes facilitated discriminations between a similarly shaped target and differently shaped foil, as would be expected. More important is that the primes also facilitated discriminations between similarly shaped targets and similarly shaped foils, even though the primes contained only features common to the alternatives and thus provided no discrimination-relevant information. The facilitation effect was constant over variations in the size of the target set, the type of mask, and the type of baseline condition. This result is consistent with the idea of early-to-late contingencies in processing but was not predicted by feature models.

Adult↗

Form perception at birth: Cohen and Younger (1984) revisited.

Cohen (1988; Cohen & Younger, 1984) has suggested that there is a shift in the perception of form sometime after 6 weeks of age. Prior to this age infants can remember the specific orientations of line segments, but cannot process and remember the angular relations that line segments can make. Experiment 1 used simple line stimuli with newborn infants to test this suggestion. Following habituation to a simple two-line angle the newborns dishabituated to a change of orientation but not to a change in angle, confirming Cohen and Younger's suggestion that orientation is a powerful cue in early shape perception. In Experiments 2 and 3 newborns were familiarized either to an acute or to an obtuse angle that changed its orientation over trials. On subsequent test trials the babies gave strong novelty preferences to a different angle. Alternative interpretations of the results are discussed, but these experimental findings are compatible with the suggestion that newborns can quickly learn to process angular relations, and that rudimentary form perception may not be dependent on a lengthy period of learning and/or maturation for its development.

Attention↗

Blindness to form from motion despite intact static form perception and motion detection.

We studied the motion perception, including form and meaning generated by motion, in a hemianopic patient who also had visual perceptual impairments in her seeing hemifield as a result of a lesion in ventral extrastriate cortex. She was unable to recognise 2- or 3-dimensional forms, and even borders, generated by motion alone, failed to recognise mimed actions or the Johannson 'biological motion' display, and ceased to recognise people well-known to her when they moved. Her performance with static displays, although impaired, could not explain her inability to perceive shape or derive meaning from moving displays. Unlike a motion-blind patient, she can still see and describe the motion, with the exception of second-order motion, but not what it creates or represents.

Aged↗

Development of three-dimensional form perception.

In three experiments with infants and one with adults we explored the generality, limitations, and informational bases of early form perception. In the infant studies we used a habituation-of-looking-time procedure and the method of Kellman (1984), in which responses to three-dimensional (3-D) form were isolated by habituating 16-week-old subjects to a single object in two different axes of rotation in depth, and testing afterward for dishabituation to the same object and to a different object in a novel axis of rotation. In Experiment 1, continuous optical transformations given by moving 16-week-old observers around a stationary 3-D object specified 3-D form to infants. In Experiment 2 we found no evidence of 3-D form perception from multiple, stationary, binocular views of objects by 16- and 24-week-olds. Experiment 3A indicated that perspective transformations of the bounding contours of an object, apart from surface information, can specify form at 16 weeks. Experiment 3B provided a methodological check, showing that adult subjects could neither perceive 3-D forms from the static views of the objects in Experiment 3A nor match views of either object across different rotations by proximal stimulus similarities. The results identify continuous perspective transformations, given by object or observer movement, as the informational bases of early 3-D form perception. Detecting form in stationary views appears to be a later developmental acquisition.

Adult↗

Global form perception: interactions between luminance and texture information.

PURPOSE: This experiment reports the independence of first- and second-order processing mechanisms in form perception. METHODS: Symmetrical dot patterns were created using either luminance-increment dots (luminance above background), or texture-defined dots (average luminance equal to background). The proportion of luminance increment or texture dots defining each pattern was varied among fields of noise dots of the same type to determine symmetry detection thresholds. RESULTS: Differences in detection thresholds were found between luminance- and texture-defined patterns. Further, symmetry detection thresholds for luminance-increment dot patterns were resistant to noise defined by dots of opposite contrast polarity (luminance-decrement dots) or texture, while texture-defined patterns were resistant to neither texture nor luminance-decrement noise. CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that symmetry perception, along with other types of form perception, use both first- and second-order processing mechanisms. The data are compatible with a second-order system that includes a negative half-wave rectifying non-linearity.

Contrast Sensitivity↗

The effect of inattention on form perception.

A state of inattention was achieved by having subjects selectively attend to one of two overlapping novel figures in a series of such overlapping figures. Recognition of form directly afterward was good for figures that had been attended to but was essentially nil for the unattended figures. Recognition failed to occur even if a familiar figure was in the unattended series and even if that figure was presented 1 sec before the test. A further experiment showed that certain general characteristics of the unattended figures other than form were recognized. The results are interpreted as indicating that attention is necessary for form perception, not merely for memory of form. It is suggested that a cognitive process of description constitutes the essence of form perception. Diverting attention eliminates the cognitive operation of describing the spatial relations that characterize a figure.

Attention↗

Physiognomic form perception: a comparison of normal and schizophrenic subjects.

The following reports the findings of a study that tested the hypothesis that schizophrenics--contrary to what has been suggested in the literature--are deficient, rather than superior, in perception of physiognomic properties. The Physiognomic Form Perception Test (RFPT), developed for the purpose and found reliable, was administered to 19 normal and 19 schizophrenic Sc. Results were in support of the hypothesis: normal Ss scored significantly higher than schizophrenics (t = 3.01, p less than .01). In addition, a qualitative analysis of verbalizations showed, as predicted, that schizophrenics gave significantly fewer "physiognomic-expressive" responses and significantly more of those rated "associations-rationalizations," as well as more "personalized and self-referent" responses.

Adolescent↗

Deficits in space-form perception in patients with sex chromosome mosaicism (45,X/46,XY).

Several studies have shown that selective deficits in space-form perception are found in patients with Turner's syndrome, associated with 45,X or a structural anomaly of an X chromosome. The authors sought to determine whether significant deviations from normal or from Turner's syndrome (relative to space perception) occur when a Y chromosome is present. The four patients studied, aged between 4 1/2 and 24 years, had a karyotype of 45,X/46,XY and a phenotype ranging from sexual ambiguity at birth to typical Turner's syndrome. Although all were in the normal intelligence range (IQ 80 or above), on testing they demonstrated below-average ability in tasks involving visualization of spatial forms, and their drawings were generally immature. The results suggest that patients with sex chromosome mosaicism X/XY may have similar deficits in space-form perception and orientation to those previously demonstrated in Turner's syndrome.

Adolescent↗

Achromatic form perception is based on luminance, not brightness.

Two figures were examined, one a subjective disk and the other a cup whose shape was revealed by shadows. The figures were presented in a single color on a background of a different color, and the observers adjusted the radiance of one color until, in the first case, the vividness of the subjective contour reached a minimum (minimum subjective contour) or, in the second case, the impression of depth that is due to shadows disappeared (shadow disappearance). The results for these two tasks followed the data for minimum flicker matches (made with the same stimuli) much more closely than those for direct brightness matching. We therefore claim that achromatic form perception in general and subjective contour and shadow perception in particular are based on the intensity dimension measured by flicker photometry, not on that measured by brightness matching. Finally, in agreement with these findings, bleaching of short-wavelength sensitive cones did not affect settings for subjective contours, shadows, or flicker photometry but did affect brightness matching.

Color Perception↗

PET reveals occipitotemporal pathway activation during elementary form perception in humans.

To define brain regions involved in feature extraction or elementary form perception, regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) was measured using positron emission tomography (PET) in subjects viewing two classes of achromatic textures. Textures composed of local features (e.g. extended contours and rectangular blocks) produced activation or increased rCBF along the occipitotemporal pathway relative to textures with the same mean luminance, contrast, and spatial-frequency content but lacking organized form elements or local features. Significant activation was observed in striate, extrastriate, lingual, and fusiform cortices as well as the hippocampus and brain stem. On a scan-by-scan basis, increases in rCBF shifted from the occipitotemporal visual cortices to medial temporal (hippocampus) and frontal lobes with increased exposure to only those textures containing local features. These results suggest that local feature extraction occurs throughout the occipitotemporal (ventral) pathway during extended exposure to visually salient stimuli, and may indicate the presence of similar receptive-field mechanisms in both occipital and temporal visual areas of the human brain.

Adult↗