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Modeling eye movements in visual agnosia with a saliency map approach: Bottom–up guidance or top–down strategy?

Foulsham, Tom ; Barton, Jason ; Kingstone, Alan ; Dewhurst, Richard LU and Underwood, Geoffrey (2011) In Neural Networks 24(6). p.665-677
Abstract
Two recent papers (Foulsham, Barton, Kingstone, Dewhurst, & Underwood, 2009; Mannan, Kennard, & Husain, 2009) report that neuropsychological patients with a profound object recognition problem (visual

agnosic subjects) show differences from healthy observers in the way their eye movements are controlled when looking at images. The interpretation of these papers is that eye movements can be modeled as the selection of points on a saliency map, and that agnosic subjects show an increased reliance on visual saliency, i.e., brightness and contrast in low-level stimulus features. Here we review this approach and present new data from our own experiments with an agnosic patient that quantifies the relationship

between... (More)
Two recent papers (Foulsham, Barton, Kingstone, Dewhurst, & Underwood, 2009; Mannan, Kennard, & Husain, 2009) report that neuropsychological patients with a profound object recognition problem (visual

agnosic subjects) show differences from healthy observers in the way their eye movements are controlled when looking at images. The interpretation of these papers is that eye movements can be modeled as the selection of points on a saliency map, and that agnosic subjects show an increased reliance on visual saliency, i.e., brightness and contrast in low-level stimulus features. Here we review this approach and present new data from our own experiments with an agnosic patient that quantifies the relationship

between saliency and fixation location. In addition, we consider whether the perceptual difficulties of individual patients might be modeled by selectively weighting the different features involved in a saliency

map. Our data indicate that saliency is not always a good predictor of fixation in agnosia: even for our agnosic subject, as for normal observers, the saliency–fixation relationship varied as a function of the

task. This means that top–down processes still have a significant effect on the earliest stages of scanning in the setting of visual agnosia, indicating severe limitations for the saliency map model. Top–down, active

strategies – which are the hallmark of our human visual system – play a vital role in eye movement control, whether we know what we are looking at or not. (Less)
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author
; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Object recognition, Visual attention, Neuropsychology, Visual saliency, Eye movements
in
Neural Networks
volume
24
issue
6
pages
665 - 677
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • wos:000292409800016
  • scopus:79957598636
  • pmid:21316191
ISSN
1879-2782
DOI
10.1016/j.neunet.2011.01.004
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
50281fc0-10f5-42ab-a1de-d3679ebbef7d (old id 1971162)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 15:03:46
date last changed
2022-03-22 03:19:56
@article{50281fc0-10f5-42ab-a1de-d3679ebbef7d,
  abstract     = {{Two recent papers (Foulsham, Barton, Kingstone, Dewhurst, &amp; Underwood, 2009; Mannan, Kennard, &amp; Husain, 2009) report that neuropsychological patients with a profound object recognition problem (visual<br/><br>
agnosic subjects) show differences from healthy observers in the way their eye movements are controlled when looking at images. The interpretation of these papers is that eye movements can be modeled as the selection of points on a saliency map, and that agnosic subjects show an increased reliance on visual saliency, i.e., brightness and contrast in low-level stimulus features. Here we review this approach and present new data from our own experiments with an agnosic patient that quantifies the relationship<br/><br>
between saliency and fixation location. In addition, we consider whether the perceptual difficulties of individual patients might be modeled by selectively weighting the different features involved in a saliency<br/><br>
map. Our data indicate that saliency is not always a good predictor of fixation in agnosia: even for our agnosic subject, as for normal observers, the saliency–fixation relationship varied as a function of the<br/><br>
task. This means that top–down processes still have a significant effect on the earliest stages of scanning in the setting of visual agnosia, indicating severe limitations for the saliency map model. Top–down, active<br/><br>
strategies – which are the hallmark of our human visual system – play a vital role in eye movement control, whether we know what we are looking at or not.}},
  author       = {{Foulsham, Tom and Barton, Jason and Kingstone, Alan and Dewhurst, Richard and Underwood, Geoffrey}},
  issn         = {{1879-2782}},
  keywords     = {{Object recognition; Visual attention; Neuropsychology; Visual saliency; Eye movements}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{6}},
  pages        = {{665--677}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Neural Networks}},
  title        = {{Modeling eye movements in visual agnosia with a saliency map approach: Bottom–up guidance or top–down strategy?}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neunet.2011.01.004}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.neunet.2011.01.004}},
  volume       = {{24}},
  year         = {{2011}},
}