VSS symposium

Special VSS symposium

Integrating top-down and bottom-up visual attention

May 5th, 2006, 3:15 - 5:15pm

Workshop Room 4, Hyatt, Sarasota, Florida

Organizer:	Vidhya Navalpakkam, University of Southern California
Speakers:	Laurent Itti, University of Southern California Kirk Thompson, National Eye Institute, NIH Jeremy Wolfe, Harvard University Steven Yantis, Johns Hopkins University

Synopsis:

Although the last few decades have witnessed enormous progress in psychophysics, physiology, imaging, theory and modeling of either bottom-up or top-down visual attention, understanding their integration is the next main frontier. It poses several open challenges: Where do top-down and bottom-up signals meet and interact? At what time and spatial scale do they interact? What is the granularity of their interaction -- is it at the level of a single neuron, or a population of neurons? What computational principles underly the integration of these signals -- is it a linear summation, or multiplication or some other function? What are the behavioral correlates of such integration?

This symposium aims to shed light on the above questions by reviewing recent cutting edge research in integrating top-down and bottom-up visual attention. It will be a unique forum where experts from different faculties including theory, modeling, psychophysics, imaging and physiology will present diverse and potentially conflicting perspectives, leading to exciting discussions and debates.

For more information contact Vidhya Navalpakkam navalpak@usc.edu

VSS annual meeting home page: www.vision-sciences.org