Evidence for two distinct mechanisms directing gaze in natural scenes
- Creators
- Mackay, Michael
- Cerf, Moran
- Koch, Christof
Abstract
Various models have been proposed to explain the interplay between bottom-up and top-down mechanisms in driving saccades rapidly to one or a few isolated targets. We investigate this relationship using eye-tracking data from subjects viewing natural scenes to test attentional allocation to high-level objects within a mathematical decision-making framework. We show the existence of two distinct types of bottom-up saliency to objects within a visual scene, which disappear within a few fixations, and modification of this saliency by top-down influences. Our analysis reveals a subpopulation of early saccades, which are capable of accurately fixating salient targets after prior fixation within the same image. These data can be described quantitatively in terms of bottom-up saliency, including an explicit face channel, weighted by top-down influences, determining the mean rate of rise of a decision-making model to a threshold that triggers a saccade. These results are compatible with a rapid subcortical pathway generating accurate saccades to salient targets after analysis by cortical mechanisms.
Additional Information
© 2012 Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology. Received March 9, 2011; published April 17, 2012. This work was funded by the Mathers Foundation, ONR, DARPA, and NSF. Author contributions: Co-authors Moran Cerf and Michael Mackay contributed equally to this work. Commercial relationships: none.Attached Files
Published - Mackay2012p18373J_Vis.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 31812
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20120605-104655889
- G. Harold and Leila Y. Mathers Charitable Foundation
- Office of Naval Research (ONR)
- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
- NSF
- Created
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2012-06-05Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-09Created from EPrint's last_modified field