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Abstract
Visual attention selects only a tiny fraction of visual input information for further
processing. Selection starts in the primary visual cortex (V1), which creates a bottom-up
saliency map to guide the fovea to selected visual locations via gaze shifts. This
motivates a new framework that views vision as consisting of encoding, selection,
and decoding stages, placing selection on center stage. It suggests a massive loss
of non-selected information from V1 downstream along the visual pathway. Hence, feedback
from downstream visual cortical areas to V1 for better decoding (recognition), through
analysis-by-synthesis, should query for additional information and be mainly directed
at the foveal region. Accordingly, non-foveal vision is not only poorer in spatial
resolution, but also more susceptible to many illusions.