Segregation of an image into figure and ground is an important step in visual processing. Two new papers show that responses in human and monkey brain areas known to be involved in shape perception depend critically on whether a region is perceived as figure or ground.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Relevant articles
Open Access articles citing this article.
-
Globally consistent depth sorting of overlapping 2D surfaces in a model using local recurrent interactions
Biological Cybernetics Open Access 04 March 2008
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$209.00 per year
only $17.42 per issue
Rent or buy this article
Prices vary by article type
from$1.95
to$39.95
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Rubin, E. Visuell wahrgenommene Figuren (Gyldendals, Copenhagen, 1921).
Rubin, E. in Visual Perception Essential Readings (ed. Yantis, S.) 225–230 (Psychology Press, Philadelphia, 2001).
Baylis, G. & Driver, J. Nat. Neurosci. 4, 937–942 (2001).
Kourtzi, Z. & Kanwisher, N. Representation of perceived object shape by the human lateral occipital cortex. Science (in press).
Logothetis, N. K. & Sheinberg, D. L. Annu. Rev. Neurosci. 19, 577–621 (1996).
Hubel, D. H. & Wiesel, T. N. J. Physiol. (Lond.) 195, 215–243 (1968).
Marr, D. Vision: A Computational Investigation into the Human Representation and Processing of Visual Information (W.H. Freeman, San Francisco, 1982).
Nakayama, K., He, Z. J. & Shimojo, S. in Visual Cognition (eds. Kosslyn, S. M. & Osherson, D. N.) 1–70 (MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1995).
Malach, R. et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 92, 8135–8139 (1995).
Mendola, J. D., Dale, A. M., Fischl, B., Liu, A. K. & Tootell, R. B. J. Neurosci. 19, 8560–8572 (1999).
Grill-Spector, K. & Malach, R. Acta Psychol. (Amst.) 107, 293–321 (2001).
Miller, E. K., Li, L. & Desimone, R. Science 254, 1377–1379 (1991).
Zhou, H., Friedman, H. S. & von der Heydt, R. J. Neurosci. 20, 6594–6611 (2000).
Pao, H., Geiger, D. & Rubin, N. Measuring convexity for Figure/Ground separation. Proc. 7th IEEE Intl. Conf. Comp. Vision, 948–955 (1999).
Peterson, M. A. & Gibson, B. S. Psychol. Sci. 5, 253–259 (1994).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rubin, N. Figure and ground in the brain. Nat Neurosci 4, 857–858 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn0901-857
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nn0901-857
This article is cited by
-
‘Two vs one’ rivalry by the Loxley–Robinson model
Biological Cybernetics (2017)
-
Beyond Simple and Complex Neurons: Towards Intermediate-level Representations of Shapes and Objects
KI - Künstliche Intelligenz (2015)
-
Recovering Relative Depth from Low-Level Features Without Explicit T-junction Detection and Interpretation
International Journal of Computer Vision (2013)
-
Globally consistent depth sorting of overlapping 2D surfaces in a model using local recurrent interactions
Biological Cybernetics (2008)