Learning Warps Object Representations in the Ventral Temporal Cortex
Learning Warps Object Representations in the Ventral Temporal Cortex
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DOI：
10.1162/jocn_a_00951
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发表时间：
2016-07-01
影响因子：
3.2
通讯作者：
Tyler, Lorraine K.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Clarke, Alex;Pell, Philip J.;Tyler, Lorraine K.
人类腹侧颞叶皮层（VTC）在物体识别中起着关键作用。虽然它是公认的视觉经验形状VTC对象表征，语义和上下文学习的影响还不清楚。在这项研究中，我们跟踪了在学习了关于每个物体的有意义的信息后出现的新视觉物体的表征的变化。在多个培训课程中，参与者学会了将语义特征（例如，由木头、花车制成）和空间上下文关联（例如，在花园里发现的）与新奇的物体。使用fMRI检查对象在学习前后的VTC活动。多变量模式相似性分析表明，学习后，VTC活动模式进行了学习的上下文关联的对象的信息，这样的上下文关联的对象表现出更高的模式相似性学习后。此外，这些学习引起的增加模式信息的上下文关联与减少模式信息的对象的视觉特征。在第二个实验中，我们验证了这些语境效应可以转化为现实生活中的物体。我们的研究结果表明，在VTC的视觉对象表征的形状的知识，我们有关于对象，并表明，对象表征可以灵活地适应作为学习的结果与特定类型的新获得的信息的变化。
The human ventral temporal cortex (VTC) plays a critical role in object recognition. Although it is well established that visual experience shapes VTC object representations, the impact of semantic and contextual learning is unclear. In this study, we tracked changes in representations of novel visual objects that emerged after learning meaningful information about each object. Over multiple training sessions, participants learned to associate semantic features (e.g., made of wood, floats) and spatial contextual associations (e.g., found in gardens) with novel objects. fMRI was used to examine VTC activity for objects before and after learning. Multivariate pattern similarity analyses revealed that, after learning, VTC activity patterns carried information about the learned contextual associations of the objects, such that objects with contextual associations exhibited higher pattern similarity after learning. Furthermore, these learning-induced increases in pattern information about contextual associations were correlated with reductions in pattern information about the object's visual features. In a second experiment, we validated that these contextual effects translated to real-life objects. Our findings demonstrate that visual object representations in VTC are shaped by the knowledge we have about objects and show that object representations can flexibly adapt as a consequence of learning with the changes related to the specific kind of newly acquired information.