Protein-based Gabor filter for visual illusion

Abstract

The structure of the receptive fields of simple cells in the visual cortex can be approximated by the Gabor function, defined as the product of a Gaussian function and a sine wave. We aim to study the mechanism of visual information processing in organisms based on a constructive method utilizing the fabrication of an artificial receptive field using a kind of protein. Bacteriorhodopsin (bR) is a retinal protein that composes the cell membrane of halophilic bacteria and resembles the human visual pigment rhodopsin. BR nano-ink was printed in the shape of a Gabor function on two transparent electrodes by a material printer to produce a Gabor filter that mimics the simple cell receptive field. The café wall illusion was detected using this artificial receptive field, and the results were compared with the simulation results.