Contextual modulations at low and high levels of visual perception: functional (in)dependence and influence of local contrast
Abstract
What we see depends on context. From low to high levels of the visual system hierarchy, the amplitude of contextual influences is a function of local input strength. In the case of human face perception, the influence exerted by face context on local feature discrimination is determined by that feature discriminability. Face contextual modulations are presumed to rely on high-level, specialized contextual mechanisms, with little contribution of low-level mechanisms. The shared dependence of low- and high-level contextual modulations on local input strength however suggests they may be linked functionally. The present registered report addresses this gap by investigating whether consistent individual differences exist in contextual modulations across low-level contrast detection and high-level facial feature discrimination. Across tasks, we manipulated the contrast (i.e., strength) of a local input target (local grating and eye region, respectively) presented either in isolation or embedded in context. The context in the contrast detection task refers to a larger surrounding grating while it refers to the facial features surrounding the target eye region in the facial feature discrimination task. The comparison of contrast thresholds across conditions provided a metric to evaluate contextual modulation magnitudes. For both upright feature discrimination and contrast detection, context exerted a strong suppressive influence on local target processing; i.e., incongruent face context and parallel surround increased contrast threshold for feature discrimination and grating detection, respectively, compared to isolated viewing condition. As expected, face inversion drastically reduced the influence of context on local contrast threshold. We found no conclusive proof of a functional link between the magnitude of contextual modulation in local contrast detection and face feature matching; there was however extreme evidence for the correlation of contextual modulation magnitude in upright and inverted face feature matching. By investigating the shared variance between the contextual modulation magnitudes across visual processing levels, this study aimed at a system-wide understanding of the influence of spatial context on vision. Despite low- and high-level contextual modulations sharing similar operating principles, the present findings suggest they may involve independent mechanisms. We outline methodological approaches for further research development on this topic.
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BibTeX
@misc{canoluk2026contextual,
title = {{Contextual modulations at low and high levels of visual perception: functional (in)dependence and influence of local contrast}},
author = {Mehmet Umut Canoluk and Marius Grandjean and Valerie Goffaux},
howpublished = {PsyArXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.31234/osf.io/zntwd_v2},
url = {https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/zntwd_v2/},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Contextual modulations at low and high levels of visual perception: functional (in)dependence and influence of local contrast
AU - Mehmet Umut Canoluk
AU - Marius Grandjean
AU - Valerie Goffaux
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/23
PB - PsyArXiv
DO - 10.31234/osf.io/zntwd_v2
UR - https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/zntwd_v2/
AB - What we see depends on context. From low to high levels of the visual system hierarchy, the amplitude of contextual influences is a function of local input strength. In the case of human face perception, the influence exerted by face context on local feature discrimination is determined by that feature discriminability. Face contextual modulations are presumed to rely on high-level, specialized contextual mechanisms, with little contribution of low-level mechanisms. The shared dependence of low- and high-level contextual modulations on local input strength however suggests they may be linked functionally. The present registered report addresses this gap by investigating whether consistent individual differences exist in contextual modulations across low-level contrast detection and high-level facial feature discrimination. Across tasks, we manipulated the contrast (i.e., strength) of a local input target (local grating and eye region, respectively) presented either in isolation or embedded in context. The context in the contrast detection task refers to a larger surrounding grating while it refers to the facial features surrounding the target eye region in the facial feature discrimination task. The comparison of contrast thresholds across conditions provided a metric to evaluate contextual modulation magnitudes. For both upright feature discrimination and contrast detection, context exerted a strong suppressive influence on local target processing; i.e., incongruent face context and parallel surround increased contrast threshold for feature discrimination and grating detection, respectively, compared to isolated viewing condition. As expected, face inversion drastically reduced the influence of context on local contrast threshold. We found no conclusive proof of a functional link between the magnitude of contextual modulation in local contrast detection and face feature matching; there was however extreme evidence for the correlation of contextual modulation magnitude in upright and inverted face feature matching. By investigating the shared variance between the contextual modulation magnitudes across visual processing levels, this study aimed at a system-wide understanding of the influence of spatial context on vision. Despite low- and high-level contextual modulations sharing similar operating principles, the present findings suggest they may involve independent mechanisms. We outline methodological approaches for further research development on this topic.
ER -