We explore the interaction between local-global informa- tion processing in visual perception, leveraging a visual phenomenon known as crowding, whereby the perception of a target stimulus is impaired by the presence of nearby ankers. The majority of established models explain the crowding e?ect in terms of local interactions. How- ever, recent experimental results indicate that a classical crowding e?ect, the deterioration in the discrimination of a vernier stimulus embedded in a square, is alleviated by the presence of additional anker squares (\uncrowd- ing"). Here, we propose that crowding and uncrowding arise from cortical inferences about hierarchically orga- nized groups, and formalize this concept using a hierarchi- cal Bayesian model. We show that the model reproduces both crowding and uncrowding for anked vernier discrim- ination. More generally, the model provides a normative explanation of how visual information might simultane- ously ow bottom-up, top-down, and laterally, to allow the visual system to interactively process local and global features in the visual scene.

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a major pathogen that infects lower respiratory tract and causes a common respiratory disease. Despite serious pathological consequences with this virus, effective treatments for controlling RSV infection remain unsolved, along with poor innate immune responses induced at the initial stage of RSV infection. Such a poor innate defense mechanism against RSV leads us to study the role of alveolar macrophage (AM) that is one of the primary innate immune cell types in the respiratory tract and may contribute to protective responses against RSV infection. As an effective strategy for enhancing anti-viral function of AM, this study suggests the intranasal administration of Bacillus subtilis spore which induces expansion of AM in the lung with activation and enhanced production of inflammatory cytokines along with several genes associated with M1 macrophage differentiation. Such effect by spore on AM was largely dependent on TLR-MyD88 signaling and, most importantly, resulted in a profound reduction of viral titers and pathological lung injury upon RSV infection. Taken together, our results suggest a protective role of AM in RSV infection and its functional modulation by B. subtilis spore, which may be a useful and potential therapeutic approach against RSV.