Long range interactions between oriented texture elements

Long range interactions between texture elements (short, oriented line segm ents) were examined. Specifically, we studied the influence of a background array of texture elements on the detectability of a target element (separa ted from the background by an intermediate textured region) using textures like those of Caputo (Vis. Res. 1996, 36, 2815-2826). We found that, in gen eral, when the background elements were oriented orthogonally to the target element, detection of the target element was better than when the backgrou nd elements had the same orientation as the target element. We discuss thes e interactions in terms of inhibitory and excitatory connections between or ientation and spatial frequency selective linear filters (e.g. filters whic h mimic V1 simple cells) which would respond to the individual texture elem ents. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.