A cortical-inspired model for orientation-dependent contrast perception: a link with Wilson-Cowan equations
This work addresses a specific problem in visual neuroscience and image processing by providing a novel mathematical model for orientation-dependent perception, though it appears incremental as it builds on existing cortical-inspired models and Wilson-Cowan equations.
The authors tackled the problem of modeling orientation-dependent contrast perception in visual neuroscience by proposing a cortical-inspired differential model that explicitly depends on local image orientation, and they validated it through numerical tests showing its ability to explain phenomena like grating induction and geometric-optical illusions.
We consider a differential model describing neuro-physiological contrast perception phenomena induced by surrounding orientations. The mathematical formulation relies on a cortical-inspired modelling [10] largely used over the last years to describe neuron interactions in the primary visual cortex (V1) and applied to several image processing problems [12,19,13]. Our model connects to Wilson-Cowan-type equations [23] and it is analogous to the one used in [3,2,14] to describe assimilation and contrast phenomena, the main novelty being its explicit dependence on local image orientation. To confirm the validity of the model, we report some numerical tests showing its ability to explain orientation-dependent phenomena (such as grating induction) and geometric-optical illusions [21,16] classically explained only by filtering-based techniques [6,18].