Zero-crossing detectors in primary visual cortex?

Shaul Hochstein*, Hedva Spitzer

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

21 Scopus citations

Abstract

David Marr and others have hypothesized that the visual system processes complex scene information in stages, the first of which involves the detection of light intensity edges or "zero-crossings" (Marr, 1982). Ideal zero-crossing detector mechanisms have been described and modeled in terms of their possible physiological implementation (Marr and Hildreth, 1980; Poggio, 1983). We now present evidence of visual cortical receptive fields which resemble in spatial organizational terms the requirements of zero-crossing analysis. The linear and nonlinear summation within and between the receptive field subunits are described and compared with predicted processes. The relative subunit sizes and separations are analyzed in these terms. Our findings support the notion that receptive fields may correspond with zero-crossing filters rather than zero-crossing detector gates.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)195-199
Number of pages5
JournalBiological Cybernetics
Volume51
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 1984

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