Task dependency of visual processing in the human visual system

Abstract

In this review we contrast passive, attribute driven processing in the visual system with an active, task-dependent view and summarize the evidence from our Positron Emission Tomography (PET) work supporting the task-dependent view. The PET studies involved comparison of regional Cerebral Blood Flow (rCBF) in closely related detection and discrimination tasks. The major finding reported is that the same retinal input or input containing only a single cue activates different extrastriate areas depending on the task.