The Emergence of Perceived Position in the Visual System

■ Representing object position is one of the most critical functions of the visual system, but this task is not as simple as reading off an objectʼs retinal coordinates. A rich body of literature has demonstrated that the position in which we perceive an object depends not only on retinotopy but also on factors such as attention, eye movements, object and scene motion, and frames of reference, to name a few. Despite the distinction between perceived and retinal position, strikingly little is known about how or where perceived position is represented in the brain. In the present study, we dissociated retinal and perceived object position to test the relative precision of retina-centered versus percept-centered position coding in a number of independently defined visual areas. In an fMRI experiment, subjects performed a five-alternative forced-choice position discrimination task; our analysis focused on the trials in which subjects misperceived the positions of the stimuli. Using a m...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2011
• Where: JOCN
• Authors: Jason Fischer, Nicole Spotswood, David Whitney
• Keywords: Fusiform Face Area, Fusiform Gyrus, JOCN 2011, Occipital Cortex