Visual cortex and the Retinex algorithm

Optical imaging has revealed that the visual cortex is the site of numerous functional maps associated with visual objects such as their position in the visual field, the local orientation of their contours, their texture and surface properties, and some aspects of their color. We show how such functional or feature maps may be used to analyze how visual objects may be represented by integrated neural population activity, and how such activity may embody algorithms similar to the Retinex algorithm.