The Geometry of Visual Perception: Retinotopic and Non-retinotopic Representations in the Human Visual System

• Published in: Proceedings of the IEEE Vol. 98; no. 3; pp. 479 - 492
• Main Authors: Oğmen, Haluk, Herzog, Michael H
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 2010
• ISSN: 0018-9219
• DOI: 10.1109/JPROC.2009.2039028

Geometry is closely linked to visual perception; yet, very little is known about the geometry of visual processing beyond early retinotopic organization. We present a variety of perceptual phenomena showing that a retinotopic representation is neither sufficient nor necessary to support form perception. We discuss the popular "object files" concept as a candidate for non-retinotopic representations and, based on its shortcomings, suggest future directions for research using local manifold representations. We suggest that these manifolds are created by the emergence of dynamic reference-frames that result from motion segmentation. We also suggest that the metric of these manifolds is based on relative motion vectors.