Neuroimaging of shape similarity in object recognition

描述（由申请人提供）：拟议研究的目标是确定与视觉识别相关的神经基质。人类大脑的一个区域，称为腹侧颞叶皮层（VTC），涉及视觉识别，这是基于对非人类灵长类动物的电生理学和病变研究的证据，以及当大脑的这个区域受损时视觉识别能力丧失的临床观察。此外，人类病变的研究和最近的功能性神经影像学研究结果表明，不同地区的VTC可能会优先响应不同的对象类别。对这些结果的一种流行的解释是，专门的神经子系统专门用于识别不同的对象类别。然而，认知行为研究表明，物体识别关键取决于对物体形状信息的处理，形状信息驱动类别组织。因此，本论文的建议是，在VTC的大脑激活的类别特定的模式，事实上，反映了不同程度的形状信息处理，是至关重要的对象识别。例如，像工具和家具这样的制造对象类别在形状上没有太多重叠，而面在形状上重叠得非常多。相反，似乎专门处理人脸的大脑区域可能参与解决高度的形状相似性。功能性磁共振成像（fMRI）被用于本建议，以检查血流的变化，在VTC在物体识别。第一个目标是确定VTC在处理与对象相关的形状信息中的作用。一个假设是，后VTC是至关重要的参与映射感知信息到存储信息的对象形式。另一个假设检查的大小和空间分布的功能磁共振成像反应的VTC形状相似性参数增加之间的对象。当形状相似性较低时（如在制造对象类别的情况下），可能涉及后VTC区域，但前VTC区域可能被招募以解决高度的形状相似性（如在面部的情况下）。第二个目标是比较这种形状相似性框架与其他两种流行的类别特异性方法-分类类别帐户和分类级别帐户的功效。形状相似性可以解释分类类别差异和分类水平差异的大脑激活模式的VTC。分离视觉识别的适当认知处理组件并将这些组件映射到功能性神经解剖学对于理解脑损伤后视觉识别缺陷的性质以及导致潜在的康复和功能恢复疗法是非常宝贵的。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of the proposed research is to determine the neural substrates associated with visual recognition. An area of the human brain, referred to as ventral temporal cortex (VTC), is implicated in visual recognition based on evidence from electrophysiological and lesion studies with non-human primates and on clinical observations that visual recognition abilities are lost when this region of the brain is damaged. In addition, human lesion studies and recent functional neuroimaging findings suggest that different regions of VTC may preferentially respond to different object categories. A popular interpretation of these results is that specialized neural subsystems are dedicated to recognizing different object classes. Cognitive behavioral studies, however, have demonstrated that object recognition depends critically on processing information about an object's shape, and that shape information drives category organization. Consequently, the thesis of the present proposal is that category-specific patterns of brain activation in VTC may, in fact, reflect varying degrees of shape information processing that is crucial for object identification. For example, manufactured object categories like tools and furniture do not overlap much in shape, whereas faces overlap tremendously in shape. Brain areas that appear to be specific to face processing may, instead, be involved in resolving high degrees of shape similarity. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is used in the present proposal to examine blood-flow changes in VTC during object recognition. The first goal is to determine the role of VTC in processing shape information associated with objects. One hypothesis is that posterior VTC is critically involved in mapping perceptual information onto stored information about object form. Another hypothesis examines the magnitude and spatial distribution of fMRI response in VTC as shape similarity parametrically increases among objects. Posterior VTC regions are likely involved when shape similarity is low (as in the case of manufactured object categories), but anterior VTC regions are likely recruited to resolve high degrees of shape similarity (as in the case of faces). The second goal is to compare the efficacy of this shape similarity framework with two other popular approaches to category specificity - a taxonomic category account and a categorization-level account. Shape similarity may explain both taxonomic category differences and categorization level differences in brain activation patterns in VTC. Isolating the proper cognitive processing components of visual recognition and mapping these components to functional neuroanatomy is invaluable for understanding the nature of visual recognition deficits following brain damage, and for leading to potential therapies for rehabilitation and recovery of function.