Abstract: Previous studies suggested that lateral interactions of V1 cells are responsible, among other visual effects, of bottom-up visual attention (alternatively named visual salience or saliency). Our objective is to mimic these connections with a neurodynamic network of firing-rate neurons in order to predict visual attention. Early visual subcortical processes (i.e. retinal and thalamic) are functionally simulated. An implementation of the cortical magnification function is included to define the retinotopical projections towards V1, processing neuronal activity for each distinct view during scene observation. Novel computational definitions of top-down inhibition (in terms of inhibition of return, oculomotor and selection mechanisms), are also proposed to predict attention in Free-Viewing and Visual Search tasks. Results show that our model outpeforms other biologically inspired models of saliency prediction while predicting visual saccade sequences with the same model. We also show how temporal and spatial characteristics of saccade amplitude and inhibition of return can improve prediction of saccades, as well as how distinct search strategies (in terms of feature-selective or category-specific inhibition) can predict attention at distinct image contexts.

Abstract: Latest computer vision architectures use a chain of feedforward computations, mainly optimizing artificial neural networks for very specific tasks. Although their impressive performance (i.e. in saliency) using real image datasets, these models do not follow several biological principles of the human visual system (e.g. feedback and horizontal connections in cortex) and are unable to predict several visual tasks simultaneously. In this study we present biologically plausible computations from the early stages of the human visual system (i.e. retina and lateral geniculate nucleus) and lateral connections in V1. Despite the simplicity of these processes and without any type of training or optimization, simulations of firing-rate dynamics of V1 are able to predict bottom-up visual attention at distinct contexts (shown previously as well to predict visual discomfort, brightness and chromatic induction). We also show functional top-down selection mechanisms as feedback inhibition projections (i.e. prefrontal cortex for search/task-based attention and parietal area for inhibition of return). Distinct saliency model predictions are tested with eye tracking datasets in free-viewing and visual search tasks, using real images and synthetically-generated patterns. Results on predicting saliency and scanpaths show that artificial models do not outperform biologically-inspired ones (specifically for datasets that lack of common endogenous biases found in eye tracking experimentation), as well as, do not correctly predict contrast sensitivities in pop-out stimulus patterns. This work remarks the importance of considering biological principles of the visual system for building models that reproduce this (and any other) visual effects.