Responses of cells in monkey visual cortex during perceptual filling-in of an artificial scotoma.
When we view a scene through one eye, we typically do not see the scotomas created by the optic disc and the blood vessels overlying the retinal surface. Similarly, when a texture field containing a hole is steadily viewed in peripheral vision (artificial scotoma), the hole appears to fill in with the surrounding texture in a matter of seconds, demonstrating that the visual system fills in information across regions where no information is available. Here we show that, in monkeys viewing a similar texture field with a hole, the responses of extrastriate visual neurons with receptive fields covering the hole increase gradually to a level comparable to that elicited by the same texture without a hole. The time course of these dynamic changes in activity parallels the time course of perceived filling-in of the hole by human observers, suggesting that this process mediates perceptual filling-in.
D000818:Animals; D005403:Fixation, Ocular; D006801:Humans; D008253:Macaca mulatta; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D011930:Reaction Time; D012607:Scotoma / Q000209:etiology; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*