Inferotemporal Cortex and Object Vision

描述(申请人提供)：颞下皮质(IT)在物体视觉中起着至关重要的作用，事实表明，它的损伤会导致严重的识别缺陷。几十年来在猕猴身上进行的研究已经阐明了信息技术在物体识别中所起的作用。这表明，IT中的神经元具有模式选择性。每个神经元对某些复杂的图像做出反应，而不对其他图像做出反应。了解信息技术中神经元模式选择性的本质--从而揭示构成视觉模式识别基础的神经机制的本质--是本提案中描述的实验的目的。将进行三个系列的实验。每种情况下的方法都将是测量神经元对由可以独立操作的离散部分组成的显示的反应，以确定对整体的反应是如何从对部分的反应中建立起来的。系列1将询问IT神经元作为一个群体是否在降维编码中代表由连接的线性段组成的形状家族，并且具有大致字母数字字符的复杂性。系列2将询问信息技术中的神经元是否对图像中元素的排列具有选择性，如果是，那么选择性是否随着大小和位置的变化而不变。系列3将询问信息技术中的神经元活动如何代表由数组中的项目组成的显示，包括单词和分级刺激。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Inferotemporal cortex (IT) plays a crucial role in object vision as indicated by the fact that injury to it results in profound recognition deficits. The role played by IT in object recognition has been elucidated by research carried out over several decades in macaque monkeys. This has indicated that neurons in IT are pattern selective. Each neuron responds to certain complex images and not others. To gain an understanding of the nature of neuronal pattern selectivity in IT - and hence to cast light on the nature of the neural machinery that underlies visual pattern recognition - is the aim of experiments described in this proposal. Three series of experiments will be carried out. The approach in each case will be to measure the responses of neurons to displays consisting of discrete parts that can be manipulated independently so as to determine how the response to the whole is built up from the responses to the parts. Series 1 will ask whether IT neurons as a population represent, in a dimensionally reduced code, a family of shapes consisting of joined linear segments and having roughly the complexity of alphanumeric characters. Series 2 will ask whether neurons in IT are selective for the arrangement of elements in an image and, if so, whether selectivity is invariant across changes in size and location. Series 3 will ask how neuronal activity in IT represents displays consisting of items in an array, including words and hierarchical stimuli.