Neural computation of depth from binocular disparity
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Authors
Reis Goncalves, Nuno
Advisors
Kourtzi, Zoe
Welchman, Andrew
Date
2018-12-01Awarding Institution
University of Cambridge
Author Affiliation
Department of Psychology
Qualification
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Language
English
Type
Thesis
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Reis Goncalves, N. (2018). Neural computation of depth from binocular disparity (Doctoral thesis). https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.27049
Abstract
Stereopsis is a par excellence demonstration of the computational power that neural systems can encapsulate. How is the brain capable of swiftly transforming a stream of binocular two-dimensional signals into a cohesive three-dimensional percept? Many brain regions have been implicated in stereoscopic processing, but their roles remain poorly understood. This dissertation focuses on the contributions of primary and dorsomedial visual cortex. Using convolutional neural networks, we found that disparity encoding in primary visual cortex can be explained by shallow, feed-forward networks optimized to extract absolute depth from naturalistic images. These networks develop physiologically plausible receptive fields, and predict neural responses to highly unnatural stimuli commonly used in the laboratory. They do not necessarily relate to our experience of depth, but seem to act as a bottleneck for depth perception. Conversely, neural activity in downstream specialized areas is likely to be a more faithful correlate of depth perception. Using ultra-high field functional magnetic resonance imaging in humans, we revealed systematic and reproducible cortical organization for stereoscopic depth in dorsal visual areas V3A and V3B/KO. Within these regions, depth selectivity was inversely related to depth magnitude — a key characteristic of stereoscopic perception. Finally, we report evidence for a differential contribution of cortical layers in stereoscopic depth perception.
Keywords
stereopsis, depth perception, neural computation
Sponsorship
European Community’s 7th Framework Programme (PITN-GA- 2011-290011)
Identifiers
This record's DOI: https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.27049
Rights
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Licence URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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