title: Perceptual learning modulates electrophysiological and psychophysical response to visual texture segmentation in humans.
abstract: We investigated the mechanisms that allow, via perceptual learning, selective modulation of a visual line-texture figure saliency in accordance with task relevance. Learning-dependent saliency increase was inferred by increased accuracy in orientation discrimination with task repetition. As a result of learning, accuracy increase was more pronounced when local and global orientation of the texture figure conflicted, and reached ceiling in both conflict and conflict-free conditions. This psychophysical effect was associated with a decrease in amplitude of negative VEP components in the configurations where global and local orientation conflicted, and to a weak increase of VEP's earliest negative component in the conflict-free condition. The VEP result is a direct demonstration that learning, in addition to increasing response of relevant channels, also reduces the weight of channels whose receptive field size and orientation tuning conflict with the task.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Psicologia Generale, Università di Padova, Via Venezia, 8, 35131 Padova, Italy. clara.casco@unipd.it
authors.forename: Clara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Casco
authors.forename: Gianluca
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Campana
authors.forename: Alba
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Grieco
authors.forename: Giorgio
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Fuggetta
mesh_terms: D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005074:Evoked Potentials, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D009949:Orientation / Q000502:physiology; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011601:Psychophysics; D014794:Visual Fields / Q000502:physiology