Gradient Representations and the Perception of Luminosity

TL;DR

This paper explores how the perception of luminosity may arise from neuronal processing of luminance gradients, suggesting that luminosity is a perceptual feature rather than a separate pathway in the visual system.

Contribution

It demonstrates how luminosity perception can emerge from existing neuronal architectures that generate luminance gradient representations.

Findings

Luminosity perception can be modeled from luminance gradient representations.

Luminance gradients are likely a perceptual feature, not a separate visual pathway.

The proposed model aligns with psychophysical evidence.

Abstract

The neuronal mechanisms that serve to distinguish between light-emitting and light reflecting objects are largely unknown. It has been suggested that luminosity perception implements a separate pathway in the visual system, such that luminosity constitutes an independent perceptual feature. Recently, a psychophysical study was conducted to address the question whether luminosity has a feature status or not. However, the results of this study lend support to the hypothesis that luminance gradients are instead a perceptual feature. Here, I show how the perception of luminosity can emerge from a previously proposed neuronal architecture for generating representations of luminance gradients.