Innate visual object recognition in vertebrates: some proposed pathways and mechanisms

Sewards, Terence V.; Sewards, Mark A.

doi:10.1016/s1095-6433(02)00119-8

Cited by 61 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 202 publications

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“…Although the superior colliculus is considered a visual structure, it is also involved in threat-relevant motor behavior. Stimulation of its deeper layers causes animals to turn, dart, or freeze (20). Infant monkeys with bilateral neurotoxic lesions of the superior colliculus continue to reach for food in the presence of a snake model, whereas shamoperated monkeys avoid the food (21).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pulvinar neurons reveal neurobiological evidence of past selection for rapid detection of snakes

Isbell

Matsumoto

et al. 2013

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

221

157

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Snakes and their relationships with humans and other primates have attracted broad attention from multiple fields of study, but not, surprisingly, from neuroscience, despite the involvement of the visual system and strong behavioral and physiological evidence that humans and other primates can detect snakes faster than innocuous objects. Here, we report the existence of neurons in the primate medial and dorsolateral pulvinar that respond selectively to visual images of snakes. Compared with three other categories of stimuli (monkey faces, monkey hands, and geometrical shapes), snakes elicited the strongest, fastest responses, and the responses were not reduced by low spatial filtering. These findings integrate neuroscience with evolutionary biology, anthropology, psychology, herpetology, and primatology by identifying a neurobiological basis for primates' heightened visual sensitivity to snakes, and adding a crucial component to the growing evolutionary perspective that snakes have long shaped our primate lineage.evolution | Snake Detection Theory | visual responses | low-pass filtered images S nakes have long been of interest to us above and beyond the attention we give to other wild animals. The attributes of snakes and our relationships with them have been topics of discussion in fields as disparate as religion, philosophy, anthropology, psychology, primatology, and herpetology (1, 2). Ochre and eggshells dated to as early as 75,000 y ago and found with cross-hatched and ladder-shaped lines (3, 4) resemble the dorsal and ventral scale patterns of snakes. As the only natural objects with those characteristics, snakes may have been among the first models used in representational imagery created by modern humans. Our interest in snakes may have originated much further back in time; our primate lineage has had a long and complex evolutionary history with snakes as competitors, predators, and prey (1). The position of primates as prey of snakes has, in fact, been argued to have constituted strong selection favoring the evolution of the ability to detect snakes quickly as a means of avoiding them, beginning with the earliest primates (2, 5). Across primate species, ages, and (human) cultures, snakes are indeed detected visually more quickly than innocuous stimuli, even in cluttered scenes (6-11). Physiological responses reveal that humans are also able to detect snakes visually even before becoming consciously aware of them (12). Although the visual system must be involved in the preferential ability to detect snakes rapidly and preconsciously or automatically, the neurological basis for this ability has not yet been elucidated, perhaps because an evolutionary perspective is rarely incorporated in neuroscientific studies. Our study helps to fill this interdisciplinary gap by investigating the responses of neurons to snakes and other natural stimuli that may have acted as selective pressures on primates in the past.Here, we identify a mechanism for the visual system's involvement in rapid snake detection by measurin...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pulvinar neurons reveal neurobiological evidence of past selection for rapid detection of snakes

Isbell

Matsumoto

et al. 2013

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

221

157

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…These studies showed that orienting and catching responses in anuran species are modulated by some of the motion properties that are associated with the perception of animacy in humans. In fact, toads prey-catching responses were modulated by the relationship between the orientation of a moving object and its motion direction (Ewert and Burghagen, 1974;Ewert and Kehl, 1978;Ewert et al, 2001;Wachowitz and Ewert, 1996; see also Sewards and Sewards, 2002).…”

Section: Visual Predispositions For Different Kinds Of Motionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Roots of a social brain: Developmental models of emerging animacy-detection mechanisms

Rosa‐Salva

Mayer

Vallortígara

2015

Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews

110

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“…The cuneiform nucleus receives a projection from the superior colliculus (Redgrave et al, 1988) that appears to provide information about rate of movement, darkness, and size of a visual stimulus (Westby et al, 1990). This, and much additional information, contributes to the perspective that the cuneiform nucleus, along with pedunculopontine nuclei and much of the pretectum and tectum, constitutes a system involved in the visual recognition of "biologically relevant stimuli" such as predators (Sewards and Sewards, 2002).…”

Section: Intergeniculate Leafletmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intergeniculate leaflet and ventral lateral geniculate nucleus afferent connections: An anatomical substrate for functional input from the vestibulo‐visuomotor system

Horowitz

Blanchard

Morin

2004

J of Comparative Neurology

101

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The intergeniculate leaflet (IGL) has widespread projections to the basal forebrain and visual midbrain, including the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). Here we describe IGL-afferent connections with cells in the ventral midbrain and hindbrain. Cholera toxin B subunit (CTB) injected into the IGL retrogradely labels neurons in a set of brain nuclei most of which are known to influence visuomotor function. These include the retinorecipient medial, lateral and dorsal terminal nuclei, the nucleus of Darkschewitsch, the oculomotor central gray, the cuneiform, and the lateral dorsal, pedunculopontine, and subpeduncular pontine tegmental nuclei. Intraocular CTB labeled a retinal terminal field in the medial terminal nucleus that extends dorsally into the pararubral nucleus, a location also containing cells projecting to the IGL. Distinct clusters of IGL-afferent neurons are also located in the medial vestibular nucleus. Vestibular projections to the IGL were confirmed by using anterograde tracer injection into the medial vestibular nucleus. Other IGL-afferent neurons are evident in Barrington's nucleus, the dorsal raphe, locus coeruleus, and retrorubral nucleus. Injection of a retrograde, trans-synaptic, viral tracer into the SCN demonstrated transport to cells as far caudal as the vestibular system and, when combined with IGL injection of CTB, confirmed that some in the medial vestibular nucleus polysynaptically project to the SCN and monosynaptically to the IGL, as do cells in other brain regions. The results suggest that the IGL may be part of the circuitry governing visuomotor activity and further indicate that circadian rhythmicity might be influenced by head motion or visual stimuli that affect the vestibular system.

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Innate visual object recognition in vertebrates: some proposed pathways and mechanisms

Cited by 61 publications

References 202 publications

Pulvinar neurons reveal neurobiological evidence of past selection for rapid detection of snakes

Pulvinar neurons reveal neurobiological evidence of past selection for rapid detection of snakes

Roots of a social brain: Developmental models of emerging animacy-detection mechanisms

Intergeniculate leaflet and ventral lateral geniculate nucleus afferent connections: An anatomical substrate for functional input from the vestibulo‐visuomotor system

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