PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Paolo Papale
AU  - Andrea Leo
AU  - Luca Cecchetti
AU  - Giacomo Handjaras
AU  - Kendrick Kay
AU  - Pietro Pietrini
AU  - Emiliano Ricciardi
TI  - Foreground-background segmentation revealed during natural image viewing
AID  - 10.1101/109496
DP  - 2017 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 109496
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/06/26/109496.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/06/26/109496.full
AB  - One of the major challenges in visual neuroscience is represented by foreground-background segmentation. Data from nonhuman primates show that segmentation leads to two distinct, but associated processes: the enhancement of neural activity during figure processing (i.e., foreground enhancement) and the suppression of background-related activity (i.e., background suppression). To study foreground-background segmentation in ecological conditions, we introduce a novel method based on parametric modulation of low-level image properties followed by application of simple computational image-processing models. By correlating the outcome of this procedure with human fMRI activity measured during passive viewing of 334 natural images, we reconstruct easily interpretable “neural images” from seven visual areas: V1, V2, V3, V3A, V3B, V4 and LOC. Results show evidence of foreground enhancement for all tested regions, while background suppression specifically occurs in V4 and LOC. “Neural images” reconstructed from V4 and LOC revealed a preserved spatial resolution of foreground textures, indicating a richer representation of the salient part of natural images, rather than a simplistic model of object shape. Our results indicate that scene segmentation is an automatic process that occurs during natural viewing, even when individuals are not required to perform any particular task.