Collinear contextual suppression

The context of a target can modulate behavioral as well as neural responses to that target. For example, target processing can be suppressed by iso-oriented surrounds whereas it can be facilitated by collinear contextual elements. Here, we present experiments in which collinear elements exert strong suppression whereas iso-oriented contextual surrounds yield no contextual modulation--contrary to most studies in this field. We suggest that contextual suppression depends strongly on the spatial arrangement of the context pointing to the influence of Gestalt factors in contextual modulation.