We construct a 6-dimensional anisotropic quadratic form $\phi$ and
a 4-dimensional quadratic form $\psi$ such that $\phi$ becomes
isotropic over the function field $F(\psi)$ but every proper subform
of $\phi$ remains anisotropic over $F(\psi)$. It is an example of
non-standard isotropy with respect to some standard conditions of
isotropy for 6-dimensional quadratic forms over function fields of
quadrics, known previously.
Besides of that, we produce an 8-dimensional quadratic form $\phi$
with trivial determinant such that the index of the Clifford invariant
of $\phi$ is 4 but $\phi$ can not be represented as a sum of two
4-dimensional forms with trivial determinants. Using this, we find a
14-dimensional quadratic form with trivial discriminant and Clifford
invariant, which is not similar to a difference of two 3-fold Pfister
forms.
The proofs are based on computations of the topological filtration on
$K_0$ of certain projective homogeneous varieties. To do these computations,
we develop several methods, covering a wide class of varieties and being,
to our mind, of independent interest.
Some other preprints of the authors on the related topics
can be found
here.