Texture segregation by chromatic and achromatic visual pathways: an analogy with motion processing.

We present results to show that texture segregation can be obtained through the so-called coherent spatial grouping of local shape (orientation) and of local color under both nonequiluminant and equiluminant conditions. Color grouping entails texture segregation independent of orientation grouping, while the reverse is not true under equiluminant conditions. The experiments permit the isolation of chromatic- and luminance-oriented mechanisms, as well as of chromatic nonoriented mechanisms, all of which contribute to texture discrimination. As a general rule, the present results (including the asymmetry between color and orientation grouping) are similar to those obtained by us in a series of motion-perception experiments. This similarity suggests that the perceptual rules governing spatial grouping are analogous (if not identical) to those governing spatiotemporal grouping. As in the case of directional discrimination, texture-discrimination performances may be accounted for by the activation of higher-order units receiving inputs from subunits, all of which display similar tuning properties within a multidimensional space.