Over the past two decades, the various incarnations of the “Laboratory for Perceptual Dynamics” in Amsterdam, Tokyo, and, most recently, Leuven have been promoting a 'complex systems' approach of visual perception. In this approach, ongoing internal processes in the brain are the basis for the experience of objects, textures, and shapes. Ongoing brain activity constitutes a necessary, but not sufficient condition for visual experience. In order to understand the sufficient conditions, the wider context in which this intrinsic dynamics is embedded has to be taken into account. This context includes visual texture, color, motion, and space but also sensations directly resulting from actively exploring the environment through eye-movement and locomotion, as well as the wider context of prior experience, learning, and development and evolution.

www.perceptualdynamics.be/team/cees-van-leeuwen/