Cognitive and Neural Mechanism for the Recognition of Fragmented Visual Information

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The visual recognition system has a capability, called visual interpolation ability, to identify objects that exist in part behind some bodies or are seen through apertures in something. We have studied the computational model and the neural basis of the visual interpolation ability using fragmented letters. A least-distance connection model, which hypothesize that the fragmented visual information is recognized based on the distances between the information, was proposed and validated. Functional imaging of the brain showed that that fragmented-letter identification was accompanied by greater activation in the bilateral dorsolateral, inferior, and lateral frontal cortices, compared to complete-letter identification. Experimental results illustrated that the bilateral extent of leukoaraiosis, however small it may be, was significantly associated with the decline of the visual interpolation ability. The results showed the useful possibility of our method for early detection of cognitive impairment.