Short-term memory for figure-ground organization in the visual cortex.
Whether the visual system uses a buffer to store image information and the duration of that storage have been debated intensely in recent psychophysical studies. The long phases of stable perception of reversible figures suggest a memory that persists for seconds. But persistence of similar duration has not been found in signals of the visual cortex. Here, we show that figure-ground signals in the visual cortex can persist for a second or more after the removal of the figure-ground cues. When new figure-ground information is presented, the signals adjust rapidly, but when a figure display is changed to an ambiguous edge display, the signals decay slowly--a behavior that is characteristic of memory devices. Figure-ground signals represent the layout of objects in a scene, and we propose that a short-term memory for object layout is important in providing continuity of perception in the rapid stream of images flooding our eyes.
O'Herron
Philip
P
Krieger Mind/Brain Institute and Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 N Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA.
von der Heydt
Rüdiger
R
D000200:Action Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D003867:Depth Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D008253:Macaca mulatta; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D014795:Visual Pathways