Jean-Michel Hupé - home page

Jean-Michel Hupé, Ph.D.

Centre de Recherche Cerveau et Cognition
CNRS-UPS UMR 5549
Université Paul Sabatier
133, route de Narbonne
31062 Toulouse Cedex
www.cerco.ups-tlse.fr

Jean-Michel.Hupe@cerco.ups-tlse.fr

Neural basis of visual perception

Psychophysics (in collaboration with Nava Rubin, NYU)

I have focused my researches on two topics : the processing of motion segmentation and integration, and the dynamics of the bi-stable perception of ambiguous stimuli. I am studying these two topics together by studying the dynamics of the perception of plaids stimuli.

Representative Publications

Hupé, JM & Rubin, N. (2003) The dynamics of bi-stable alternation in ambiguous motion displays: a fresh look at plaids. Vision Res 43: 531 - 548.
Preprint pdf
Supplementary Information

Hupé, JM, & Rubin, N. (2001) Transparent motion is always more likely for plaids moving along oblique directions than for plaids moving along cardinal directions. IOVS, 42 (Suppl.), 736.
(view ARVO 2001 demo)
Hupé, JM & Rubin, N. (2003) The Oblique Plaid Effect. (Preprint pdf)

Hupé, JM, & Rubin, N. (2000) Perceived motion transparency can override luminance / color cues which are inconsistent with transparency. IOVS, 41 (Suppl.), 721.
(view ARVO 2000 demo)

Electrophysiology (Thesis work with Jean Bullier done in Lyon at INSERM 371, 1995 - 1999)

Role of cortical feedback connections in visual perception

The objective of this project was to understand the function of cortico-cortical feedback connections in the visual cortex of the macaque monkey, using original techniques of local reversible inactivation. These studies revealed that feedback connections were functionally active even in the anaesthetized monkey, suggesting their involvement in automatic perception processes, and not only in attentional or intentional high level processes. The effect of inactivation of motion specialized area MT on the responses of V1, V2 and V3 neurons to figure-ground stimuli was the most significant result : the strongest effects of MT inactivation occurred for low contrast moving stimuli presented against a static background, suggesting that motion segmentation cues were fed back from MT to lower order areas. Surprinsingly, these effects could be observed in the first msec of the neuronal response. The visual cortex must therefore be conceptualized as a network of interacting areas responding with near-simultaneity (which also means that the role of feedback connections can not be suggested by the temporal properties of lower order neurons).

Representative Publications

Hupé, JM, James, AC, Payne, BR, Lomber, SG, Girard, P, and Bullier, J. Cortical feedback improves discrimination between figure and background by V1, V2 and V3 neurons. Nature 394: 784-787, 1998. pdf.

Hupé, JM, James, AC, Girard, P, Lomber, SG, Payne, BR, and Bullier, J. Feedback connections act on the early part of the responses in monkey visual cortex. J Neurophysiol 85: 134-145, 2001. pdf.

Hupé, JM, James, AC, Girard, P, and Bullier, J. Response modulations by static texture surround in Area V1 of the macaque monkey do not depend on feedback connections from V2. J Neurophysiol 85: 146–163, 2001. pdf.

Girard, P, Hupé, JM, and Bullier, J. Feedforward and feedback connections between areas V1 and V2 of the monkey have similar rapid conduction velocities. J Neurophysiol 85: 1328-1331, 2001.

Hupé, JM, Chouvet, G, and Bullier, J. Spatial and temporal parameters of cortical inactivation by GABA. J Neurosci Meth 86: 129-143, 1999. pdf.

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