The Role of Expertise in Object Perception

描述（由申请人提供）：要求继续支持对视觉专业训练的神经基础和行为结果的调查，重点是训练方案之间的比较。拟议的实验设计与最先进的神经成像训练研究形成对比，后者一次测试一个训练程序的效果，因此很难将专业知识的效果归因于经验的任何特定方面。人类受试者将被训练在不同的训练条件下获得对新物体的感知专业知识，并使用功能磁共振成像（fMRI）和心理物理技术来测量专业知识效应。这项工作的动机是一个理论框架，即过程图假说，该假说提出，大脑活动模式的差异是由对象类别以任务独立的方式自动引出的，反映了对象表征对训练条件要求的调整。在拟议的研究中，我们将开发新的训练程序来解决以下问题：1)经验是否可以确定物体类别所招募的视觉区域，而不依赖于其几何形状？2)在被动观看或知觉学习期间，先前接触一个对象类别对随后的知觉专业知识习得有什么影响？3)几何能否与关于物体的概念信息相互作用，从而约束经验对专业技能习得的影响？计划中的实验将开始建立一个框架，在这个框架中，根据训练情况的具体方面（例如，物体几何形状、集合属性、训练任务、过去的暴露、非视觉概念知识），对物体经验的行为和神经效应进行预测成为可能。公共卫生相关性：视觉专业知识是许多关键人类活动的一部分，从面部感知到阅读，以及获得许多职业所需的感知技能。该项目旨在了解不同类型的训练如何改变视觉系统，以使专家表现。这些知识可能有助于制定更好的训练方案，以治疗各种疾病，包括阅读障碍和视觉失认症。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Continuing support is requested for investigations of the neural bases and behavioral outcomes of visual expertise training with objects, focusing on comparisons between training protocols. The proposed experimental designs contrast with state-of-the-art neuroimaging training studies, which test the effects of one training procedure at a time, making it difficult to attribute expertise effects to any specific aspect of experience. Human subjects will be trained to acquire perceptual expertise with novel objects in various training conditions, and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) as well as psychophysical techniques will be used to measure expertise effects. The work is motivated by a theoretical framework, the process-map hypothesis, which proposes that differences in patterns of brain activity that are elicited automatically, in a task-independent manner, by object categories, reflect the tuning of object representations to the demands of training conditions. In the proposed investigations, we will develop new training procedures to address the following questions: 1) Can experience determine the visual areas recruited by an object category, independent of its geometry? 2) What are the effects of prior exposure to an object category, either during passive viewing or during perceptual learning, in the subsequent acquisition of perceptual expertise? 3) Can geometry interact with conceptual information learned about an object to constrain the effects of experience in the acquisition of expert skills? The planned experiments will begin to build a framework in which it will become possible to predict, based on specific aspects of a training situation (e.g., object geometry, set properties, training tasks, past exposure, non-visual conceptual knowledge), behavioral and neural effects of experience with objects. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Visual expertise is part of many critical human activities, from face perception to reading, as well as the acquisition of the perceptual skills necessary in many careers. This project aims at understanding how different types of training change the visual system to allow expert performance. This knowledge may help develop better training protocols for various diseases, including dyslexia and visual agnosia.