Spatial Heterogeneity in Bistable Figure-Ground Perception

Abstract

The appearance of visual objects varies substantially across the visual field. Could such spatial heterogeneity be due to undersampling of the visual field by neurons selective for stimulus categories? Here, we show that which parts of a bistable vase-face image observers perceive as figure and ground depends on the retinal location where the image appears. The spatial patterns of these perceptual biases were similar regardless of whether the images were upright or inverted. Undersampling by neurons tuned to an object class (e.g., faces) or variability in general local versus global processing cannot readily explain this spatial heterogeneity. Rather, these biases could result from idiosyncrasies in low-level sensitivity across the visual field.