Vaegan Seminar

Please join us for our next Vaegan seminar to be presented by Prof Li Zhaoping (Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics). Please note the special time to account for time zone differences.

Title: The central-peripheral dichotomy: theory and experimental test

Speaker: Prof Zhaoping Li (Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics)

Time/Date: 5-6pm Friday 17 October 2025 (AEDT)

Location: Online via Zoom (link below)

https://unsw.zoom.us/j/87366124698?pwd=y43bC8DarzNWF8Ke3FDRT9jDrNy6mu.1

Abstract:
The central-peripheral dichotomy (CPD) theory states: the peripheral visual field is mainly for looking (shifts gaze and attention), the central visual field is mainly for seeing (recognition/discrimination), and that top-down feedback along the visual pathway to aid recognition is mainly directed to the central visual field. This CPD theory (Zhaoping 2017, 2019) is motivated by the fact that visual attention selects only a tiny fraction of visual input information for further processing, and by the evidence backed V1 Saliency hypothesis, which states that the primary visual cortex (V1)  creates a bottom-up saliency map to  guide the fovea/attention to selected visual locations via gaze shifts. Hence, selection is hypothesized to starts at from  V1 to downstream areas,  and there is a massive loss of non-selected information from V1 downstream  along the visual pathway. The CPD theory predicts that non-foveal vision is not only poorer in spatial resolution, but also more susceptible to many illusions. The predictions of the CPD theory include: (1) two new illusions that are normally only visible in the peripheral visual field, (2) these illusions become visible in the central visual field when the top-down feedback is disabled, and (3) top-down feedback to aid seeing is mainly directed to the central visual field.  Experimental tests of the predictions will be discussed.

Bio: Prof Li Zhaoping obtained her B.S. in Physics in 1984 from Fudan University, Shanghai, and Ph.D. in Physics in 1989 from California Institute of Technology. She was a postdoctoral researcher in Fermi National Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois USA, Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton New Jersey, USA, and Rockefeller University in New York USA. Prof Li has been a faculty member in Computer Science in Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and was a visiting scientist at various academic institutions. She and her colleagues founded the Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit in University College London. From Oct. 2018, she was appointed Professor in University of Tuebingen and a Max Planck Fellow in the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tuebingen, Germany. Her research experience throughout the years ranges from areas in high energy physics to neurophysiology and marine biology, with most experience in understanding the brain functions in vision, olfaction, and in nonlinear neural dynamics.