# How Does Normalization Regulate Visual Competition?

> **NIH NIH R01** · BOSTON UNIVERSITY (CHARLES RIVER CAMPUS) · 2020 · $408,932

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
How does the visual system regulate competing sensory information? Recent theories propose that a
computation known as divisive normalization plays a key role in governing neural competition. Normalization is
considered a canonical neural computation, potentially driving responses throughout the neural and cognitive
system. Interestingly, there is evidence to suggest that normalization's pervasive role relies on an exquisite
tuning to stimulus features, such as orientation, but this feature-selective nature of normalization is surprisingly
understudied, particularly in humans. The goal of the proposed work is to employ state-of-the-art functional
neuroimaging techniques and analyses to shed light on the tuning characteristics that allow normalization to
control population responses within human visual cortex, and to understand how this form of normalization can
support functions as diverse as attentional selection and interocular competition. We approach the problem by
first characterizing the selective properties of normalization within early visual cortex during normal, passive,
scene viewing. We will then assess the unifying potential of models based on divisive normalization, examining
the role of feature-tuned normalization in regulating competition in apparently unrelated settings, namely those
involving selective attention and interocular competition. By revealing the properties of tuned normalization
within human visual cortex, and characterizing the role of normalization in attentional feedback and competition
at large, these studies will provide the necessary framework for the development of diagnostic tools and
treatments for clinical disorders that involve deficits in central visual processing.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9999600
- **Project number:** 5R01EY028163-04
- **Recipient organization:** BOSTON UNIVERSITY (CHARLES RIVER CAMPUS)
- **Principal Investigator:** SAM LING
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $408,932
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-09-01 → 2022-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9999600

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9999600, How Does Normalization Regulate Visual Competition? (5R01EY028163-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-21 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9999600. Licensed CC0.

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