Textures of Natural Images in the Human Brain. Focus on “Orientation-Selective Adaptation to First- and Second-Order Patterns in Human Visual Cortex”

Abstract

Texture patterns— homogeneous regions of repeated structures—are the predominant feature of natural visual scenes. The zebra, a 1938 optical art painting by Victor Vasarely, illustrates how different textures segregate and define figures from their background. Despite the ease with which we perceive the two zebras in a background of black and white stripes this is a challenging operation for the visual system. The edges that separate the two zebras from each other and their background divide the image in homogeneous regions that differ in