A Quantitative Model of the Functional Architecture of Human Striate Cortex with Application to Visual Jllusion

Anato~llical and physiological data from lower primates, and psychophysical data from hun~ans, is used to construct a quantitative model of the local and global map structure (functional architecture) of human striate cortex. A series of successful estimates deriving from this model are reviewed. including a prediction for the width of human ocular dominance columns, which has recently been verified. A variety of perceptual phenomena are then discussed. from the point of view of cortical, rather than retinal, topography. It is suggested that the striate cortex may be viewed as a "cyclopean retina" whose non-linear map structure. su~nrnarized in terms of a concatenated complex logarithmic pattern, suggests insights into the nature of the Mackay complimentary image, the Frazer spiral, fortification illusions, and the relationship of the second order statistics of a visual stirnulus to pre-attentive (textural) segmentation. Finally, the nature of nuuronal representation is considered in the contest of recunt models of perceptual and cognitive fiinction. I t is suggested that rinatomical re-m:~pping at successive stages of the CNS may provide a conceptual a1 ternative to conventional single cell and connectionist models, and offers a viable approach towards "ficld" theory of vision.