RESPONSES OF CELLS IN MONKEY VISUAL-CORTEX DURING PERCEPTUAL FILLING-IN OF AN ARTIFICIAL SCOTOMA

WHEN we view a scene through one eye, we typically do not see the scot omas created by the optic disc and the blood vessels overlying the ret inal surface. Similarly, when a texture field containing a hole is ste adily viewed in peripheral vision (artificial scotoma), the hole appea rs to fill in with the surrounding texture in a matter of seconds, dem onstrating that the visual system fills in information across regions where no information is available(1-5). Here we show that, in monkeys viewing a similar texture field with a hole, the responses of extrastr iate visual neurons with receptive fields covering the hole increase g radually to a level comparable to that elicited by the same texture wi thout a hole. The time course of these dynamic changes in activity par allels the time course of perceived filling-in of the hole by human ob servers, suggesting that this process mediates perceptual filling-in.