Spatial and temporal proximity as factors in shape recognition 英文参考文献.docVIP

Behavioral and Brain Functions BioMedCentral Research Open Access Spatial and temporal proximity as factors in shape recognition Ernest Greene*1,2 Address: 1Laboratory for Neurometric Research, Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-1061, USA and 2Neuropsychology Foundation, Sun Valley, CA 91353, USA Email: Ernest Greene* - egreene@ * Corresponding author Published: 5 June 2007 Received: 27 March 2007 Accepted: 5 June 2007 Behavioral and Brain Functions 2007, 3:27 doi:10.1186/1744-9081-3-27 This article is available from: /content/3/1/27 ? 2007 Greene; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract Prior research from this laboratory examined minimal stimulus conditions that allow for recognition of objects. Using briefly flashed dots that marked the outer border of objects, it was found that timing differentials within and among successive dot pairs affected recognition, with significant declines being seen by the addition of temporal separations in the millisecond range. These experiments were done with dot pairs that had close spatial proximity, which leaves open the possibility that the effects could be attributed to strictly local neural encoding processes. The present research reports that spatial separation of pair members resulted in declines in recognition that were similar to those produced with close spacing of pair members. Both for close and separated dot pairs, recognition was best when they were displayed with near simultaneity, which likely generated synchronized spikes in the retina. These results provide cognitive evidence in support of proposals that synchronous neural activity is part o