From the neuron receptive field to the perceptual field: the subcortical nerve mechanism of the asymmetry of the stimulus size-dependent bright and dark light spots

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Afterimage ( afterimage ) is a kind of visual illusion, which refers to the phenomenon that the brain can still perceive the transient residual visual image within a short period of time after the visual stimulus disappears from the field of vision, especially under a monochrome background
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As shown in Figure 1A , when you stare at the picture on the left for a period of time, and then move your sight to the blank area in the middle, the world famous painting "Mona Lisa" will be displayed in front of your eyes; if you stare at the picture on the right, "Mona Lisa" "Lisa" for a period of time, and then move your eyes to the blank area in the middle, you will see an image with the opposite polarity, similar to the image on the left.
This is the visual afterimage

The previous research of Wang Wei's research group found that the photopic afterimage produced by the removal of black light spot stimulation is stronger and longer in duration than the dark vision afterimage produced by the white light spot stimulation removal of the same size and contrast; these perceptions The asymmetry of perception is consistent with the asymmetry of the action potential firing intensity in response to the withdrawal of the black and white light spots on the subcortical ON and OFF cells ( Li et al.
, J Neurosci, 2017 )
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The most basic structure for neurons in the visual cortex to process visual information is the central - peripheral antagonistic receptive field, which is modulated by the magnitude of visual stimuli

Picture 1 : A , stare at the red cross in the picture on the left for 20 seconds, then move your eyes to the blank area in the middle, a world famous painting "Mona Lisa" will be displayed in front of your eyes; if you stare at the picture on the right, "Meng The red cross in "Nalisa" for 20 seconds, and then move the line of sight to the blank area in the middle, you will see an image with opposite polarity similar to the image on the left, this is the visual afterimage
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B , the center - peripheral antagonistic receptive field structure of ON and OFF cells in the visual cortex and the selectivity of the stimulus size .

In this work, the researchers of Wang Wei's research group combined a variety of research methods to explore and study how the center - peripheral antagonism of the visual cell receptive field, which is dependent on the size of the stimulus, affects the light withdrawal response of the ON and OFF cells in the subcortex.

The perception of the resulting bright and dark vision afterimage

Figure 2 : A , the stimulus size tuning curve of the perceived intensity of the bright and dark vision afterimage
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When the size is increased stimulation, the visual image of the bright null image contrast is significantly greater than the scotopic null contrast

　　This research not only reveals an important asymmetry in the ON-OFF pathway of the visual system , but also provides an important reference for us to further understand the neural mechanism of visual perception, and reveals the subcortical neural mechanism that produces the afterimage of bright and dark vision.
It explains that the structural characteristics of neuron receptive fields are the neural basis of perceptual field characteristics
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　　This work was under the guidance of researcher Wang Wei from the Chinese Academy of Sciences Center of Excellence for Brain Intelligence and Dr.