Effects of shape-discrimination training on the selectivity of inferotemporal cells in adult monkeys
Effects of shape-discrimination training on the selectivity of inferotemporal cells in adult monkeys
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DOI：
10.1152/jn.1998.80.1.324
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发表时间：
1998-07-01
影响因子：
2.5
通讯作者：
Tanaka, K
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Kobatake, E;Wang, G;Tanaka, K
通过广泛的训练，人类可以成为“视觉专家”，能够比未经训练的人更容易地在视觉上区分相似物体之间的细微差异。为了了解这种后天识别能力背后的神经机制，成年猴子被充分训练来识别28个中等复杂的形状。在麻醉条件下，观察训练对颞下皮层TE区细胞刺激选择性的影响。TE区代表腹侧视觉皮质通路的后期阶段，该通路介导视觉物体的辨别和识别。经过训练的猴子和未经训练的对照组的记录显示，经过训练的猴子的TE细胞对28种刺激中的某些成员的反应比例明显高于对照组。从受过训练的猴子身上记录的细胞反应并没有严格地调整到单一的训练刺激，而是广泛地覆盖了几个训练刺激。训练猴的TE细胞反应所跨越的训练刺激之间的反应空间距离明显大于对照组。单个细胞对训练刺激的反应子集因细胞而异，只有部分重叠，这表明细胞对几种刺激的共同特征作出反应。这些结果与一个模型是一致的，在这个模型中，视觉专业知识是通过颞下细胞对相关物体图像的不同反应发展而获得的。
Through extensive training, humans can become "visual experts," able to visually distinguish subtle differences among similar objects with greater ease than those who are untrained. To understand the neural mechanisms behind this acquired discrimination ability, adult monkeys were fully trained to discriminate 28 moderately complex shapes. The training effects on the stimulus selectivity of cells in area TE of the inferotemporal cortex were then examined in anesthetized preparations. Area TE represents a later stage of the ventral visual cortical pathway that is known to mediate visual object discrimination and recognition. The recordings from the trained monkeys and untrained controls showed that the proportion of TE cells responsive to some member of the 28 stimuli was significantly greater in the trained monkeys than that in the control monkeys. Cell responses recorded from the trained monkeys were not sharply tuned to single training stimuli, but rather broadly covered several training stimuli. The distances among the training stimuli in the response space spanned by responses of the recorded TE cells were significantly greater in the trained monkeys than those in the control monkeys. The subset of training stimuli to which individual cells responded differed from cell to cell with only partial overlaps, suggesting that the cells responded to features common to several stimuli. These results are consistent with a model in which visual expertise is acquired through the development of differential responses by inferotemporal cells to the images of relevant objects.