Striate cortex extracts higher-order spatial correlations from visual textures.

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Abstract
Spatial correlations define the statistical structure of any visual image. Two-point correlations inform the visual system about the spatial frequency content of an image. Higher-order correlations can capture salient features such as object contours. We studied ''isodipole'' texture discrimination in V1 to determine if higher-order spatial correlations can be extracted by early stages of cortical processing. We made epicortical, local field potential, and single-cell recordings of responses elicited by isodipole texture interchange in anesthetized monkeys. Our studies demonstrate that single neurons in V1 can signal the presence of higher-order spatial correlations in visual textures. This places a computational mechanism, which may be essential for form vision at the earliest stage of cortical processing.