Re:Identifying the dimensions used by the primate brain to d...
by stinos on Monday June 05, 2017 @07:45AM
(#14486899)
See the methods: as usual for visual fixattion experiments with monkeys, the subjects were trained to maintain fixation, fixation window being only a part of the image size:
stimulus size spanned 5.7 degrees. The fixation spot size was 0.2 degrees in diameter and the fixation window was a square with the diameter of 2.5 degrees.
2.5 is relatively large in my experience, might be due to lots of noise on the signal, but anyway there won't be true saccades (well, there shouldn't be, parts of recorded data wehere with saccades outside of that fixation window should get rejected). Probably microsaccades were present, but those aren't mentioned.
Incredibly important point. Looking at the physiology of the eye and the early visual system all together it's not clear that we can see anything without motion: object motion or saccade (saccade appears to be fundamental). Start with Lettvin's famous frog's eye paper.
More interestingly, it does appear that recognition of a 2D image may be a complex, abstract learned behavor, while 3D recognition is at its core innate. And that writing (well, drawing) preceded reading.