Integrated Contextual Representation for Objects' Identities and Their Locations

Gronau, Nurit; Neta, Maital; Bar, Moshe

doi:10.1162/jocn.2008.20.3.371

Cited by 39 publications

(73 citation statements)

References 74 publications

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“…Dell, 1986; Dell et al, 1997; Humphreys et al, 1988; Levelt, 1989; Mirman, 2011). In the fMRI experiment (Experiment 1), we found evidence that short-term adaptation to animal pictures transferred significantly more to visually and conceptually related objects in the left lateral frontal cortex when the adapted anchor picture was named several times prior to the fMRI experiment (see also Gronau et al, 2008, for similar results). The degree to which this tuning change occurred was directly related to the proportion of conceptual errors that participants made in the picture naming sessions just before and after the fMRI scanning session.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 58%

Object identification leads to a conceptual broadening of object representations in lateral prefrontal cortex

2015

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Recent experience identifying objects leads to later improvements in both speed and accuracy (“repetition priming”), along with simultaneous reductions of neural activity (“repetition suppression”). A popular interpretation of these joint behavioral and neural phenomena is that object representations become perceptually “sharper” with stimulus repetition, eliminating cells that are poorly stimulus-selective and responsive and reducing support for competing representations downstream. Here, we test this hypothesis in an fMRI-adaptation experiment using pictures of objects. Prior to fMRI, participants repeatedly named a set of object pictures. During fMRI, participants viewed adaptation sequences composed of rapidly repeated objects (3-6 repetitions over several seconds) that were either named previously or that were new for the fMRI session, followed by single “deviant” object pictures used to measure recovery from adaptation and that shared a relationship to the adapted picture (a different exemplar of the same object, a conceptual associate, or an unrelated picture). Effects of adaptation and recovery were found throughout visually responsive brain regions. Occipitotemporal cortical regions displayed repetition suppression to previously named relative to new adaptors but failed to exhibit pronounced changes in neural tuning. In contrast, changes in the slope of the recovery curves were found in the left lateral prefrontal cortex: Greater residual adaptation was observed to exemplar stimuli and conceptual associates following previously named adapting stimuli, consistent with greater rather than reduced neural overlap among representations of conceptually related objects. Furthermore, this change in neural tuning was directly related to the proportion of conceptual errors made by participants in the naming sessions pre- and post-fMRI, establishing that the experience-dependent conceptual broadening of object representations seen in fMRI is also manifest in behavior. In a follow-up behavioral experiment, we further show that recent naming experience leads to greater semantic priming when using the previously named pictures as briefly presented primes. Taken together, our results fail to support perceptual sharpening as the primary mediator between repetition suppression and behavioral priming at durations typically used to study priming and instead highlight an experience-dependent broadening of conceptual representations. We suggest that alternative mechanisms, such as increases in neural synchronization, are more promising in explaining priming in the face of repetition suppression.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 58%

Object identification leads to a conceptual broadening of object representations in lateral prefrontal cortex

2015

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“…At the same time, visual object processing appears to activate action representations, even in tasks not involving a motor response (e.g., Kalénine, Mirman, Middleton, & Buxbaum, 2012; Lee et al, 2013; Myung et al, 2010). Additionally, visual context influences object processing (e.g., Gronau, Neta, & Bar, 2008; Mudrik, Lamy, & Deouell, 2010). In objects associated with more than one action, such as the conflict objects presented here, we may speculate that the visual context serves to amplify the action associated with it (e.g., Wurm, von Cramon, & Schubotz, 2012).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Visual context modulates potentiation of grasp types during semantic object categorization

et al. 2013

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Substantial evidence suggests that conceptual processing of manipulable objects is associated with potentiation of action. Such data have been viewed as evidence that objects are recognized via access to action features. Many objects, however, are associated with multiple actions. For example, a kitchen timer may be clenched with a power grip to move it, but pinched with a precision grip to use it. The present study tested the hypothesis that action evocation during conceptual object processing is responsive to the visual scene in which objects are presented. Twenty-five healthy adults were asked to categorize object pictures presented in different naturalistic visual contexts that evoke either move- or use-related actions. Categorization judgments (natural vs. artifact) were performed by executing a move- or use-related action (clench vs. pinch) on a response device, and response times were assessed as a function of contextual congruence. Although the actions performed were irrelevant to the categorization judgment, responses were significantly faster when actions were compatible with the visual context. This compatibility effect was largely driven by faster pinch responses when objects were presented in use- compared to move-compatible contexts. The present study is the first to highlight the influence of visual scene on stimulus-response compatibility effects during semantic object processing. These data support the hypothesis that action evocation during conceptual object processing is biased toward context-relevant actions.

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“…An emerging body of anatomical and imaging experiments suggests rapid magnocellular pathways to prefrontal cortex can prime object categories or contexts that aid in rapid object and scene recognition (Bar et al, 2006; Gronau, Neta, & Bar, 2008; Kveraga, Boshyan, & Bar, 2007). Recent electrophysiology studies in V4 have found that, in addition to contrast gain due to spatial attention, there is also independent feature-based attention that modifies spectral tuning of preferred spatial frequencies (David, Hayden, Mazer, & Gallant, 2008; Hayden & Gallant, 2005, 2009).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neural dynamics of object-based multifocal visual spatial attention and priming: Object cueing, useful-field-of-view, and crowding

Foley

Grossberg

Mingolla

2012

Cognitive Psychology

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How are spatial and object attention coordinated to achieve rapid object learning and recognition during eye movement search? How do prefrontal priming and parietal spatial mechanisms interact to determine the reaction time costs of intra-object attention shifts, inter-object attention shifts, and shifts between visible objects and covertly cued locations? What factors underlie individual differences in the timing and frequency of such attentional shifts? How do transient and sustained spatial attentional mechanisms work and interact? How can volition, mediated via the basal ganglia, influence the span of spatial attention? A neural model is developed of how spatial attention in the where cortical stream coordinates view-invariant object category learning in the what cortical stream under free viewing conditions. The model simulates psychological data about the dynamics of covert attention priming and switching requiring multifocal attention without eye movements. The model predicts how “attentional shrouds” are formed when surface representations in cortical area V4 resonate with spatial attention in posterior parietal cortex (PPC) and prefrontal cortex (PFC), while shrouds compete among themselves for dominance. Winning shrouds support invariant object category learning, and active surface-shroud resonances support conscious surface perception and recognition. Attentive competition between multiple objects and cues simulates reaction-time data from the two-object cueing paradigm. The relative strength of sustained surface-driven and fast-transient motion-driven spatial attention controls individual differences in reaction time for invalid cues. Competition between surface-driven attentional shrouds controls individual differences in detection rate of peripheral targets in useful-field-of-view tasks. The model proposes how the strength of competition can be mediated, though learning or momentary changes in volition, by the basal ganglia. A new explanation of crowding shows how the cortical magnification factor, among other variables, can cause multiple object surfaces to share a single surface-shroud resonance, thereby preventing recognition of the individual objects.

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Integrated Contextual Representation for Objects' Identities and Their Locations

Cited by 39 publications

References 74 publications

Object identification leads to a conceptual broadening of object representations in lateral prefrontal cortex

Object identification leads to a conceptual broadening of object representations in lateral prefrontal cortex

Visual context modulates potentiation of grasp types during semantic object categorization

Neural dynamics of object-based multifocal visual spatial attention and priming: Object cueing, useful-field-of-view, and crowding

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