Inferotemporal Cortex and Object Vision

描述（由申请人提供）：下颞叶皮层（IT）在物体视觉中起着至关重要的作用，这一事实表明，对它的损伤会导致严重的识别缺陷。信息技术在物体识别中所起的作用已经在猕猴身上进行了几十年的研究。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，而不是其他的。为了了解IT中神经元模式选择性的本质，从而揭示视觉模式识别背后的神经机制的本质，这是本提案中描述的实验的目的。将进行三个系列的实验。在每种情况下，方法都是测量神经元对由离散部分组成的显示器的反应，这些显示器可以独立操作，以便确定如何从对部分的反应建立对整体的反应。系列1将询问IT神经元作为一个群体是否在维度缩减的代码中表示由连接的线性段组成的形状家族，并且具有大致的字母数字字符的复杂性。系列2将询问IT中的神经元是否对图像中元素的排列具有选择性，如果是这样，选择性是否在大小和位置的变化中保持不变。系列3将询问IT中的神经元活动如何表示由数组中的项目组成的显示，包括单词和分层刺激。

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.