Publications | Empirical Inference - Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems

38 results (View BibTeX file of all listed publications)

2019

Semi-supervised learning, causality, and the conditional cluster assumption

von Kügelgen, J., Mey, A., Loog, M., Schölkopf, B.

NeurIPS 2019 Workshop “Do the right thing”: machine learning and causal inference for improved decision making, December 2019 (poster) Accepted

link (url) [BibTex]

2019

von Kügelgen, J., Mey, A., Loog, M., Schölkopf, B. Semi-supervised learning, causality, and the conditional cluster assumption NeurIPS 2019 Workshop “Do the right thing”: machine learning and causal inference for improved decision making, December 2019 (poster) Accepted

link (url) [BibTex]

Optimal experimental design via Bayesian optimization: active causal structure learning for Gaussian process networks

von Kügelgen, J., Rubenstein, P., Schölkopf, B., Weller, A.

NeurIPS 2019 Workshop “Do the right thing”: machine learning and causal inference for improved decision making, December 2019 (poster) Accepted

link (url) [BibTex]

von Kügelgen, J., Rubenstein, P., Schölkopf, B., Weller, A. Optimal experimental design via Bayesian optimization: active causal structure learning for Gaussian process networks NeurIPS 2019 Workshop “Do the right thing”: machine learning and causal inference for improved decision making, December 2019 (poster) Accepted

link (url) [BibTex]

Perception of temporal dependencies in autoregressive motion

Meding, K., Schölkopf, B., Wichmann, F. A.

European Conference on Visual Perception (ECVP), 2019 (poster)

[BibTex]

Meding, K., Schölkopf, B., Wichmann, F. A. Perception of temporal dependencies in autoregressive motion European Conference on Visual Perception (ECVP), 2019 (poster)

[BibTex]

Phenomenal Causality and Sensory Realism

Bruijns, S. A., Meding, K., Schölkopf, B., Wichmann, F. A.

European Conference on Visual Perception (ECVP), 2019 (poster)

[BibTex]

Bruijns, S. A., Meding, K., Schölkopf, B., Wichmann, F. A. Phenomenal Causality and Sensory Realism European Conference on Visual Perception (ECVP), 2019 (poster)

[BibTex]

2013

Coupling between spiking activity and beta band spatio-temporal patterns in the macaque PFC

Safavi, S., Panagiotaropoulos, T., Kapoor, V., Logothetis, N., Besserve, M.

43rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience (Neuroscience), 2013 (poster)

[BibTex]

2013

Safavi, S., Panagiotaropoulos, T., Kapoor, V., Logothetis, N., Besserve, M. Coupling between spiking activity and beta band spatio-temporal patterns in the macaque PFC 43rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience (Neuroscience), 2013 (poster)

[BibTex]

Gaussian Process Vine Copulas for Multivariate Dependence

Lopez-Paz, D., Hernandez-Lobato, J., Ghahramani, Z.

International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML), 2013 (poster)

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Lopez-Paz, D., Hernandez-Lobato, J., Ghahramani, Z. Gaussian Process Vine Copulas for Multivariate Dependence International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML), 2013 (poster)

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Domain Generalization via Invariant Feature Representation

Muandet, K., Balduzzi, D., Schölkopf, B.

30th International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML2013), 2013 (poster)

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Muandet, K., Balduzzi, D., Schölkopf, B. Domain Generalization via Invariant Feature Representation 30th International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML2013), 2013 (poster)

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Analyzing locking of spikes to spatio-temporal patterns in the macaque prefrontal cortex

Safavi, S., Panagiotaropoulos, T., Kapoor, V., Logothetis, N., Besserve, M.

Bernstein Conference, 2013 (poster)

DOI [BibTex]

Safavi, S., Panagiotaropoulos, T., Kapoor, V., Logothetis, N., Besserve, M. Analyzing locking of spikes to spatio-temporal patterns in the macaque prefrontal cortex Bernstein Conference, 2013 (poster)

DOI [BibTex]

One-class Support Measure Machines for Group Anomaly Detection

Muandet, K., Schölkopf, B.

29th Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (UAI), 2013 (poster)

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Muandet, K., Schölkopf, B. One-class Support Measure Machines for Group Anomaly Detection 29th Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (UAI), 2013 (poster)

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The Randomized Dependence Coefficient

Lopez-Paz, D., Hennig, P., Schölkopf, B.

Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS), 2013 (poster)

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Lopez-Paz, D., Hennig, P., Schölkopf, B. The Randomized Dependence Coefficient Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS), 2013 (poster)

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Characterization of different types of sharp-wave ripple signatures in the CA1 of the macaque hippocampus

Ramirez-Villegas, J., Logothetis, N., Besserve, M.

4th German Neurophysiology PhD Meeting Networks, 2013 (poster)

Web [BibTex]

Ramirez-Villegas, J., Logothetis, N., Besserve, M. Characterization of different types of sharp-wave ripple signatures in the CA1 of the macaque hippocampus 4th German Neurophysiology PhD Meeting Networks, 2013 (poster)

Web [BibTex]

2007

MR-Based PET Attenuation Correction: Method and Validation

Hofmann, M., Steinke, F., Scheel, V., Charpiat, G., Brady, M., Schölkopf, B., Pichler, B.

2007 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference (NSS-MIC 2007), 2007(M16-6):1-2, November 2007 (poster)

Abstract

PET/MR combines the high soft tissue contrast of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and the functional information of Positron Emission Tomography (PET). For quantitative PET information, correction of tissue photon attenuation is mandatory. Usually in conventional PET, the attenuation map is obtained from a transmission scan, which uses a rotating source, or from the CT scan in case of combined PET/CT. In the case of a PET/MR scanner, there is insufficient space for the rotating source and ideally one would want to calculate the attenuation map from the MR image instead. Since MR images provide information about proton density of the different tissue types, it is not trivial to use this data for PET attenuation correction. We present a method for predicting the PET attenuation map from a given the MR image, using a combination of atlas-registration and recognition of local patterns. Using "leave one out cross validation" we show on a database of 16 MR-CT image pairs that our method reliably allows estimating the CT image from the MR image. Subsequently, as in PET/CT, the PET attenuation map can be predicted from the CT image. On an additional dataset of MR/CT/PET triplets we quantitatively validate that our approach allows PET quantification with an error that is smaller than what would be clinically significant. We demonstrate our approach on T1-weighted human brain scans. However, the presented methods are more general and current research focuses on applying the established methods to human whole body PET/MRI applications.

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2007

Hofmann, M., Steinke, F., Scheel, V., Charpiat, G., Brady, M., Schölkopf, B., Pichler, B. MR-Based PET Attenuation Correction: Method and Validation 2007 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference (NSS-MIC 2007), 2007(M16-6):1-2, November 2007 (poster)

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Estimating receptive fields without spike-triggering

Macke, J., Zeck, G., Bethge, M.

37th annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience (Neuroscience 2007), 37(768.1):1, November 2007 (poster)

Web [BibTex]

Macke, J., Zeck, G., Bethge, M. Estimating receptive fields without spike-triggering 37th annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience (Neuroscience 2007), 37(768.1):1, November 2007 (poster)

Web [BibTex]

Evaluation of Deformable Registration Methods for MR-CT Atlas Alignment

Scheel, V., Hofmann, M., Rehfeld, N., Judenhofer, M., Claussen, C., Pichler, B.

2007 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference (NSS-MIC 2007), 2007(M13-121):1, November 2007 (poster)

Abstract

Deformable registration methods are essential for multimodality imaging. Many different methods exist but due to the complexity of the deformed images a direct comparison of the methods is difficult. One particular application that requires high accuracy registration of MR-CT images is atlas-based attenuation correction for PET/MR. We compare four deformable registration algorithms for 3D image data included in the Open Source "National Library of Medicine Insight Segmentation and Registration Toolkit" (ITK). An interactive landmark based registration using MiraView (Siemens) has been used as gold standard. The automatic algorithms provided by ITK are based on the metrics Mattes mutual information as well as on normalized mutual information. The transformations are calculated by interpolating over a uniform B-Spline grid laying over the image to be warped. The algorithms were tested on head images from 10 subjects. We implemented a measure which segments head interior bone and air based on the CT images and l ow intensity classes of corresponding MRI images. The segmentation of bone is performed by individually calculating the lowest Hounsfield unit threshold for each CT image. The compromise is made by quantifying the number of overlapping voxels of the remaining structures. We show that the algorithms provided by ITK achieve similar or better accuracy than the time-consuming interactive landmark based registration. Thus, ITK provides an ideal platform to generate accurately fused datasets from different modalities, required for example for building training datasets for Atlas-based attenuation correction.

PDF [BibTex]

Scheel, V., Hofmann, M., Rehfeld, N., Judenhofer, M., Claussen, C., Pichler, B. Evaluation of Deformable Registration Methods for MR-CT Atlas Alignment 2007 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference (NSS-MIC 2007), 2007(M13-121):1, November 2007 (poster)

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A time/frequency decomposition of information transmission by LFPs and spikes in the primary visual cortex

Belitski, A., Gretton, A., Magri, C., Murayama, Y., Montemurro, M., Logothetis, N., Panzeri, S.

37th Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience (Neuroscience 2007), 37, pages: 1, November 2007 (poster)

Web [BibTex]

Belitski, A., Gretton, A., Magri, C., Murayama, Y., Montemurro, M., Logothetis, N., Panzeri, S. A time/frequency decomposition of information transmission by LFPs and spikes in the primary visual cortex 37th Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience (Neuroscience 2007), 37, pages: 1, November 2007 (poster)

Web [BibTex]

Mining expression-dependent modules in the human interaction network

Georgii, E., Dietmann, S., Uno, T., Pagel, P., Tsuda, K.

BMC Bioinformatics, 8(Suppl. 8):S4, November 2007 (poster)

PDF DOI [BibTex]

Georgii, E., Dietmann, S., Uno, T., Pagel, P., Tsuda, K. Mining expression-dependent modules in the human interaction network BMC Bioinformatics, 8(Suppl. 8):S4, November 2007 (poster)

PDF DOI [BibTex]

A Hilbert Space Embedding for Distributions

Smola, A., Gretton, A., Song, L., Schölkopf, B.

Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Discovery Science (DS 2007), 10, pages: 40-41, October 2007 (poster)

Abstract

While kernel methods are the basis of many popular techniques in supervised learning, they are less commonly used in testing, estimation, and analysis of probability distributions, where information theoretic approaches rule the roost. However it becomes difficult to estimate mutual information or entropy if the data are high dimensional.

PDF PDF DOI [BibTex]

Smola, A., Gretton, A., Song, L., Schölkopf, B. A Hilbert Space Embedding for Distributions Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Discovery Science (DS 2007), 10, pages: 40-41, October 2007 (poster)

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Studying the effects of noise correlations on population coding using a sampling method

Ecker, A., Berens, P., Bethge, M., Logothetis, N., Tolias, A.

Neural Coding, Computation and Dynamics (NCCD 07), 1, pages: 21, September 2007 (poster)

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Ecker, A., Berens, P., Bethge, M., Logothetis, N., Tolias, A. Studying the effects of noise correlations on population coding using a sampling method Neural Coding, Computation and Dynamics (NCCD 07), 1, pages: 21, September 2007 (poster)

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Near-Maximum Entropy Models for Binary Neural Representations of Natural Images

Berens, P., Bethge, M.

Neural Coding, Computation and Dynamics (NCCD 07), 1, pages: 19, September 2007 (poster)

Abstract

Maximum entropy analysis of binary variables provides an elegant way for studying the role of pairwise correlations in neural populations. Unfortunately, these approaches suffer from their poor scalability to high dimensions. In sensory coding, however, high-dimensional data is ubiquitous. Here, we introduce a new approach using a near-maximum entropy model, that makes this type of analysis feasible for very high-dimensional data---the model parameters can be derived in closed form and sampling is easy. We demonstrate its usefulness by studying a simple neural representation model of natural images. For the first time, we are able to directly compare predictions from a pairwise maximum entropy model not only in small groups of neurons, but also in larger populations of more than thousand units. Our results indicate that in such larger networks interactions exist that are not predicted by pairwise correlations, despite the fact that pairwise correlations explain the lower-dimensional marginal statistics extrem ely well up to the limit of dimensionality where estimation of the full joint distribution is feasible.

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Berens, P., Bethge, M. Near-Maximum Entropy Models for Binary Neural Representations of Natural Images Neural Coding, Computation and Dynamics (NCCD 07), 1, pages: 19, September 2007 (poster)

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Learning the Influence of Spatio-Temporal Variations in Local Image Structure on Visual Saliency

Kienzle, W., Wichmann, F., Schölkopf, B., Franz, M.

10th T{\"u}binger Wahrnehmungskonferenz (TWK 2007), 10, pages: 1, July 2007 (poster)

Abstract

Computational models for bottom-up visual attention traditionally consist of a bank of Gabor-like or Difference-of-Gaussians filters and a nonlinear combination scheme which combines the filter responses into a real-valued saliency measure [1]. Recently it was shown that a standard machine learning algorithm can be used to derive a saliency model from human eye movement data with a very small number of additional assumptions. The learned model is much simpler than previous models, but nevertheless has state-of-the-art prediction performance [2]. A central result from this study is that DoG-like center-surround filters emerge as the unique solution to optimizing the predictivity of the model. Here we extend the learning method to the temporal domain. While the previous model [2] predicts visual saliency based on local pixel intensities in a static image, our model also takes into account temporal intensity variations. We find that the learned model responds strongly to temporal intensity changes ocurring 200-250ms before a saccade is initiated. This delay coincides with the typical saccadic latencies, indicating that the learning algorithm has extracted a meaningful statistic from the training data. In addition, we show that the model correctly predicts a significant proportion of human eye movements on previously unseen test data.

Web [BibTex]

Kienzle, W., Wichmann, F., Schölkopf, B., Franz, M. Learning the Influence of Spatio-Temporal Variations in Local Image Structure on Visual Saliency 10th T{\"u}binger Wahrnehmungskonferenz (TWK 2007), 10, pages: 1, July 2007 (poster)

Web [BibTex]

Better Codes for the P300 Visual Speller

Biessmann, F., Hill, N., Farquhar, J., Schölkopf, B.

G{\"o}ttingen Meeting of the German Neuroscience Society, 7, pages: 123, March 2007 (poster)

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Biessmann, F., Hill, N., Farquhar, J., Schölkopf, B. Better Codes for the P300 Visual Speller G{\"o}ttingen Meeting of the German Neuroscience Society, 7, pages: 123, March 2007 (poster)

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Do We Know What the Early Visual System Computes?

Bethge, M., Kayser, C.

31st G{\"o}ttingen Neurobiology Conference, 31, pages: 352, March 2007 (poster)

Abstract

Decades of research provided much data and insights into the mechanisms of the early visual system. Currently, however, there is great controversy on whether these findings can provide us with a thorough functional understanding of what the early visual system does, or formulated differently, of what it computes. At the Society for Neuroscience meeting 2005 in Washington, a symposium was held on the question "Do we know that the early visual system does", which was accompanied by a widely regarded publication in the Journal of Neuroscience. Yet, that discussion was rather specialized as it predominantly addressed the question of how well neural responses in retina, LGN, and cortex can be predicted from noise stimuli, but did not emphasize the question of whether we understand what the function of these early visual areas is. Here we will concentrate on this neuro-computational aspect of vision. Experts from neurobiology, psychophysics and computational neuroscience will present studies which approach this question from different viewpoints and promote a critical discussion of whether we actually understand what early areas contribute to the processing and perception of visual information.

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Bethge, M., Kayser, C. Do We Know What the Early Visual System Computes? 31st G{\"o}ttingen Neurobiology Conference, 31, pages: 352, March 2007 (poster)

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Implicit Wiener Series for Estimating Nonlinear Receptive Fields

Franz, MO., Macke, JH., Saleem, A., Schultz, SR.

31st G{\"o}ttingen Neurobiology Conference, 31, pages: 1199, March 2007 (poster)

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Franz, MO., Macke, JH., Saleem, A., Schultz, SR. Implicit Wiener Series for Estimating Nonlinear Receptive Fields 31st G{\"o}ttingen Neurobiology Conference, 31, pages: 1199, March 2007 (poster)

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3D Reconstruction of Neural Circuits from Serial EM Images

Maack, N., Kapfer, C., Macke, J., Schölkopf, B., Denk, W., Borst, A.

31st G{\"o}ttingen Neurobiology Conference, 31, pages: 1195, March 2007 (poster)

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Maack, N., Kapfer, C., Macke, J., Schölkopf, B., Denk, W., Borst, A. 3D Reconstruction of Neural Circuits from Serial EM Images 31st G{\"o}ttingen Neurobiology Conference, 31, pages: 1195, March 2007 (poster)

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Identifying temporal population codes in the retina using canonical correlation analysis

Bethge, M., Macke, J., Gerwinn, S., Zeck, G.

31st G{\"o}ttingen Neurobiology Conference, 31, pages: 359, March 2007 (poster)

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Bethge, M., Macke, J., Gerwinn, S., Zeck, G. Identifying temporal population codes in the retina using canonical correlation analysis 31st G{\"o}ttingen Neurobiology Conference, 31, pages: 359, March 2007 (poster)

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Bayesian Neural System identification: error bars, receptive fields and neural couplings

Gerwinn, S., Seeger, M., Zeck, G., Bethge, M.

31st G{\"o}ttingen Neurobiology Conference, 31, pages: 360, March 2007 (poster)

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Gerwinn, S., Seeger, M., Zeck, G., Bethge, M. Bayesian Neural System identification: error bars, receptive fields and neural couplings 31st G{\"o}ttingen Neurobiology Conference, 31, pages: 360, March 2007 (poster)

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About the Triangle Inequality in Perceptual Spaces

Jäkel, F., Schölkopf, B., Wichmann, F.

Proceedings of the Computational and Systems Neuroscience Meeting 2007 (COSYNE), 4, pages: 308, February 2007 (poster)

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Jäkel, F., Schölkopf, B., Wichmann, F. About the Triangle Inequality in Perceptual Spaces Proceedings of the Computational and Systems Neuroscience Meeting 2007 (COSYNE), 4, pages: 308, February 2007 (poster)

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Center-surround filters emerge from optimizing predictivity in a free-viewing task

Kienzle, W., Wichmann, F., Schölkopf, B., Franz, M.

Proceedings of the Computational and Systems Neuroscience Meeting 2007 (COSYNE), 4, pages: 207, February 2007 (poster)

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Kienzle, W., Wichmann, F., Schölkopf, B., Franz, M. Center-surround filters emerge from optimizing predictivity in a free-viewing task Proceedings of the Computational and Systems Neuroscience Meeting 2007 (COSYNE), 4, pages: 207, February 2007 (poster)

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Nonlinear Receptive Field Analysis: Making Kernel Methods Interpretable

Kienzle, W., Macke, J., Wichmann, F., Schölkopf, B., Franz, M.

Computational and Systems Neuroscience Meeting 2007 (COSYNE 2007), 4, pages: 16, February 2007 (poster)

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Kienzle, W., Macke, J., Wichmann, F., Schölkopf, B., Franz, M. Nonlinear Receptive Field Analysis: Making Kernel Methods Interpretable Computational and Systems Neuroscience Meeting 2007 (COSYNE 2007), 4, pages: 16, February 2007 (poster)

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Estimating Population Receptive Fields in Space and Time

Macke, J., Zeck, G., Bethge, M.

Computational and Systems Neuroscience Meeting 2007 (COSYNE 2007), 4, pages: 44, February 2007 (poster)

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Macke, J., Zeck, G., Bethge, M. Estimating Population Receptive Fields in Space and Time Computational and Systems Neuroscience Meeting 2007 (COSYNE 2007), 4, pages: 44, February 2007 (poster)

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2002

Real-Time Statistical Learning for Oculomotor Control and Visuomotor Coordination

Vijayakumar, S., Souza, A., Peters, J., Conradt, J., Rutkowski, T., Ijspeert, A., Nakanishi, J., Inoue, M., Shibata, T., Wiryo, A., Itti, L., Amari, S., Schaal, S.

(Editors: Becker, S. , S. Thrun, K. Obermayer), Sixteenth Annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS), December 2002 (poster)

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2002

Vijayakumar, S., Souza, A., Peters, J., Conradt, J., Rutkowski, T., Ijspeert, A., Nakanishi, J., Inoue, M., Shibata, T., Wiryo, A., Itti, L., Amari, S., Schaal, S. Real-Time Statistical Learning for Oculomotor Control and Visuomotor Coordination (Editors: Becker, S. , S. Thrun, K. Obermayer), Sixteenth Annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS), December 2002 (poster)

Web [BibTex]

Surface-slant-from-texture discrimination: Effects of slant level and texture type

Rosas, P., Wichmann, F., Wagemans, J.

Journal of Vision, 2(7):300, Second Annual Meeting of the Vision Sciences Society (VSS), November 2002 (poster)

Abstract

The problem of surface-slant-from-texture was studied psychophysically by measuring the performances of five human subjects in a slant-discrimination task with a number of different types of textures: uniform lattices, randomly displaced lattices, polka dots, Voronoi tessellations, orthogonal sinusoidal plaid patterns, fractal or 1/f noise, “coherent” noise and a “diffusion-based” texture (leopard skin-like). The results show: (1) Improving performance with larger slants for all textures. (2) A “non-symmetrical” performance around a particular slant characterized by a psychometric function that is steeper in the direction of the more slanted orientation. (3) For sufficiently large slants (66 deg) there are no major differences in performance between any of the different textures. (4) For slants at 26, 37 and 53 degrees, however, there are marked differences between the different textures. (5) The observed differences in performance across textures for slants up to 53 degrees are systematic within subjects, and nearly so across them. This allows a rank-order of textures to be formed according to their “helpfulness” — that is, how easy the discrimination task is when a particular texture is mapped on the surface. Polka dots tended to allow the best slant discrimination performance, noise patterns the worst up to the large slant of 66 degrees at which performance was almost independent of the particular texture chosen. Finally, our large number of 2AFC trials (approximately 2800 trials per texture across subjects) and associated tight confidence intervals may enable us to find out about which statistical properties of the textures could be responsible for surface-slant-from-texture estimation, with the ultimate goal of being able to predict observer performance for any arbitrary texture.

Web DOI [BibTex]

Rosas, P., Wichmann, F., Wagemans, J. Surface-slant-from-texture discrimination: Effects of slant level and texture type Journal of Vision, 2(7):300, Second Annual Meeting of the Vision Sciences Society (VSS), November 2002 (poster)

Web DOI [BibTex]

Modelling Contrast Transfer in Spatial Vision

Wichmann, F.

Journal of Vision, 2(10):7, Second Annual Meeting of the Vision Sciences Society (VSS), November 2002 (poster)

Abstract

Much of our information about spatial vision comes from detection experiments involving low-contrast stimuli. Contrast discrimination experiments provide one way to explore the visual system's response to stimuli of higher contrast, the results of which allow different models of contrast processing (e.g. energy versus gain-control models) to be critically assessed (Wichmann & Henning, 1999). Studies of detection and discrimination using pulse train stimuli in noise, on the other hand, make predictions about the number, position and properties of noise sources within the processing stream (Henning, Bird & Wichmann, 2002). Here I report modelling results combining data from both sinusoidal and pulse train experiments in and without noise to arrive at a more tightly constrained model of early spatial vision.

Web DOI [BibTex]

Wichmann, F. Modelling Contrast Transfer in Spatial Vision Journal of Vision, 2(10):7, Second Annual Meeting of the Vision Sciences Society (VSS), November 2002 (poster)

Web DOI [BibTex]

Pulse train detection and discrimination in pink noise

Henning, G., Wichmann, F., Bird, C.

Journal of Vision, 2(7):229, Second Annual Meeting of the Vision Sciences Society (VSS), November 2002 (poster)

Abstract

Much of our information about spatial vision comes from detection experiments involving low-contrast stimuli. Contrast discrimination experiments provide one way to explore the visual system's response to stimuli of higher contrast. We explored both detection and contrast discrimination performance with sinusoidal and "pulse-train" (or line) gratings. Both types of grating had a fundamental spatial frequency of 2.09-c/deg but the pulse-train, ideally, contains, in addition to its fundamental component, all the harmonics of the fundamental. Although the 2.09-c/deg pulse-train produced on the display was measured and shown to contain at least 8 harmonics at equal contrast, it was no more detectable than its most detectable component; no benefit from having additional information at the harmonics was measurable. The addition of broadband "pink" noise, designed to equalize the detectability of the components of the pulse train, made it about a factor of four more detectable than any of its components. However, in contrast-discrimination experiments, with an in-phase pedestal or masking grating of the same form and phase as the signal and 15% contrast, the noise did not improve the discrimination performance of the pulse train relative to that of its sinusoidal components. In contrast, a 2.09-c/deg "super train," constructed to have 8 equally detectable harmonics, was a factor of five more detectable than any of its components. We discuss the implications of these observations for models of early vision in particular the implications for possible sources of internal noise.

Web DOI [BibTex]

Henning, G., Wichmann, F., Bird, C. Pulse train detection and discrimination in pink noise Journal of Vision, 2(7):229, Second Annual Meeting of the Vision Sciences Society (VSS), November 2002 (poster)

Web DOI [BibTex]

Phase information in the recognition of natural images

Braun, D., Wichmann, F., Gegenfurtner, K.

Perception, 31(ECVP Abstract Supplement):133, 25th European Conference on Visual Perception, August 2002 (poster)

Abstract

Fourier phase plays an important role in determining global image structure. For example, when the phase spectrum of an image of a flower is swapped with that of a tank, we usually perceive a tank, even though the amplitude spectrum is still that of the flower. Similarly, when the phase spectrum of an image is randomly swapped across frequencies, that is its Fourier energy is randomly distributed over the image, the resulting image becomes impossible to recognise. Our goal was to evaluate the effect of phase manipulations in a quantitative manner. Subjects viewed two images of natural scenes, one of which contained an animal (the target) embedded in the background. The spectra of the images were manipulated by adding random phase noise at each frequency. The phase noise was the independent variable, uniformly distributed between 0° and ±180°. Subjects were remarkably resistant to phase noise. Even with ±120° noise, subjects were still 75% correct. The proportion of correct answers closely followed the correlation between original and noise-distorted images. Thus it appears as if it was not the global phase information per se that determines our percept of natural images, but rather the effect of phase on local image features.

Web [BibTex]

Braun, D., Wichmann, F., Gegenfurtner, K. Phase information in the recognition of natural images Perception, 31(ECVP Abstract Supplement):133, 25th European Conference on Visual Perception, August 2002 (poster)

Web [BibTex]

Detection and discrimination in pink noise

Wichmann, F., Henning, G.

5, pages: 100, 5. T{\"u}binger Wahrnehmungskonferenz (TWK), February 2002 (poster)

Abstract

Much of our information about early spatial vision comes from detection experiments involving low-contrast stimuli, which are not, perhaps, particularly "natural" stimuli. Contrast discrimination experiments provide one way to explore the visual system's response to stimuli of higher contrast whilst keeping the number of unknown parameters comparatively small. We explored both detection and contrast discrimination performance with sinusoidal and "pulse-train" (or line) gratings. Both types of grating had a fundamental spatial frequency of 2.09-c/deg but the pulse-train, ideally, contains, in addition to its fundamental component, all the harmonics of the fundamental. Although the 2.09-c/deg pulse-train produced on our display was measured using a high-performance digital camera (Photometrics) and shown to contain at least 8 harmonics at equal contrast, it was no more detectable than its most detectable component; no benefit from having additional information at the harmonics was measurable. The addition of broadband 1-D "pink" noise made it about a factor of four more detectable than any of its components. However, in contrast-discrimination experiments, with an in-phase pedestal or masking grating of the same form and phase as the signal and 15% contrast, the noise did not improve the discrimination performance of the pulse train relative to that of its sinusoidal components. We discuss the implications of these observations for models of early vision in particular the implications for possible sources of internal noise.

Web [BibTex]

Wichmann, F., Henning, G. Detection and discrimination in pink noise 5, pages: 100, 5. T{\"u}binger Wahrnehmungskonferenz (TWK), February 2002 (poster)

Web [BibTex]

Application of Monte Carlo Methods to Psychometric Function Fitting

Wichmann, F.

Proceedings of the 33rd European Conference on Mathematical Psychology, pages: 44, 2002 (poster)

Abstract

The psychometric function relates an observer's performance to an independent variable, usually some physical quantity of a stimulus in a psychophysical task. Here I describe methods to (1) fitting psychometric functions, (2) assessing goodness-of-fit, and (3) providing confidence intervals for the function's parameters and other estimates derived from them. First I describe a constrained maximum-likelihood method for parameter estimation. Using Monte-Carlo simulations I demonstrate that it is important to have a fitting method that takes stimulus-independent errors (or "lapses") into account. Second, a number of goodness-of-fit tests are introduced. Because psychophysical data sets are usually rather small I advocate the use of Monte Carlo resampling techniques that do not rely on asymptotic theory for goodness-of-fit assessment. Third, a parametric bootstrap is employed to estimate the variability of fitted parameters and derived quantities such as thresholds and slopes. I describe how the bootstrap bridging assumption, on which the validity of the procedure depends, can be tested without incurring too high a cost in computation time. Finally I describe how the methods can be extended to test hypotheses concerning the form and shape of several psychometric functions. Software describing the methods is available (http://www.bootstrap-software.com/psignifit/), as well as articles describing the methods in detail (Wichmann&Hill, Perception&Psychophysics, 2001a,b).

[BibTex]

Wichmann, F. Application of Monte Carlo Methods to Psychometric Function Fitting Proceedings of the 33rd European Conference on Mathematical Psychology, pages: 44, 2002 (poster)

[BibTex]

Optimal linear estimation of self-motion - a real-world test of a model of fly tangential neurons

Franz, MO.

SAB 02 Workshop, Robotics as theoretical biology, 7th meeting of the International Society for Simulation of Adaptive Behaviour (SAB), (Editors: Prescott, T.; Webb, B.), 2002 (poster)

Abstract

The tangential neurons in the fly brain are sensitive to the typical optic flow patterns generated during self-motion (see example in Fig.1). We examine whether a simplified linear model of these neurons can be used to estimate self-motion from the optic flow. We present a theory for the construction of an optimal linear estimator incorporating prior knowledge both about the distance distribution of the environment, and about the noise and self-motion statistics of the sensor. The optimal estimator is tested on a gantry carrying an omnidirectional vision sensor that can be moved along three translational and one rotational degree of freedom. The experiments indicate that the proposed approach yields accurate results for rotation estimates, independently of the current translation and scene layout. Translation estimates, however, turned out to be sensitive to simultaneous rotation and to the particular distance distribution of the scene. The gantry experiments confirm that the receptive field organization of the tangential neurons allows them, as an ensemble, to extract self-motion from the optic flow.

PDF [BibTex]

Franz, MO. Optimal linear estimation of self-motion - a real-world test of a model of fly tangential neurons SAB 02 Workshop, Robotics as theoretical biology, 7th meeting of the International Society for Simulation of Adaptive Behaviour (SAB), (Editors: Prescott, T.; Webb, B.), 2002 (poster)

PDF [BibTex]

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