Modeling filling-in of afterimages

Van Lier, Vergeer, and Anstis (2009) reported that color information in a visual afterimage could spread across regions that were not colored in the inducing stimulus. The perceived color and shape of the afterimage could be manipulated by drawn contours that apparently trap the spread of afterimage color signals. They further hypothesized that the observed effects indicated a common mechanism for afterimage color filling-in and real-color filling-in phenomena. New simulations of the existing boundary contour system/feature contour system model of visual perception (Grossberg & Mingolla, 1985a, 1985b) demonstrate the connection between these phenomena.