Representation of human vision in the brain: How does human perception recognize images?

The repetitive scanpath eye movement, EM, sequence enabled an approach to the representation of visual images in the human brain. We supposed that there were several levels of binding—semantic or symbolic binding; structural binding for the spatial locations of the regions-of-interest; and sequential binding for the dynamic execution program that yields the sequence of EMs. The scanpath sequences enable experimental evaluation of these various bindings that appear to play independent roles and are likely located in different parts of the modular cortex. EMs play an essen- tial role in top-down control of the flow of visual information. The scanpath theory proposes that an internal spatial-cognitive model controls perception and the active looking EMs. Evidence support- ing the scanpath theory includes experiments with ambiguous fig- ures, visual imagery, and dynamic scenes. It is further explicated in a top-down computer vision tracking scheme for telerobots using design elements from the scanpath procedures. We also introduce procedures—calibration of EMs, identification of regions-of-interest, and analysis and comparison programs—for studying scanpaths. Although philosophers have long speculated that we see in our mind's eye, yet until the scanpath theory, no strong scientific evi- dence was available to support these conjectures. © 2001 SPIE and IS&T. (DOI: 10.1117/1.1329895)