IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v12y2021i1d10.1038_s41467-021-27027-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Visual prototypes in the ventral stream are attuned to complexity and gaze behavior

Author

Listed:
  • Olivia Rose

    (Washington University School of Medicine
    Harvard Medical School)

  • James Johnson

    (Washington University School of Medicine)

  • Binxu Wang

    (Washington University School of Medicine
    Harvard Medical School)

  • Carlos R. Ponce

    (Washington University School of Medicine
    Harvard Medical School)

Abstract

Early theories of efficient coding suggested the visual system could compress the world by learning to represent features where information was concentrated, such as contours. This view was validated by the discovery that neurons in posterior visual cortex respond to edges and curvature. Still, it remains unclear what other information-rich features are encoded by neurons in more anterior cortical regions (e.g., inferotemporal cortex). Here, we use a generative deep neural network to synthesize images guided by neuronal responses from across the visuocortical hierarchy, using floating microelectrode arrays in areas V1, V4 and inferotemporal cortex of two macaque monkeys. We hypothesize these images (“prototypes”) represent such predicted information-rich features. Prototypes vary across areas, show moderate complexity, and resemble salient visual attributes and semantic content of natural images, as indicated by the animals’ gaze behavior. This suggests the code for object recognition represents compressed features of behavioral relevance, an underexplored aspect of efficient coding.

Suggested Citation

  • Olivia Rose & James Johnson & Binxu Wang & Carlos R. Ponce, 2021. "Visual prototypes in the ventral stream are attuned to complexity and gaze behavior," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-16, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-021-27027-8
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-27027-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-27027-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-021-27027-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pinglei Bao & Liang She & Mason McGill & Doris Y. Tsao, 2020. "A map of object space in primate inferotemporal cortex," Nature, Nature, vol. 583(7814), pages 103-108, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Olivia Rose & Carlos R. Ponce, 2024. "A concentration of visual cortex-like neurons in prefrontal cortex," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-14, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Vasiliki Bougou & Michaël Vanhoyland & Alexander Bertrand & Wim Paesschen & Hans Op De Beeck & Peter Janssen & Tom Theys, 2024. "Neuronal tuning and population representations of shape and category in human visual cortex," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-15, December.
    2. Elia Shahbazi & Timothy Ma & Martin Pernuš & Walter Scheirer & Arash Afraz, 2024. "Perceptography unveils the causal contribution of inferior temporal cortex to visual perception," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.
    3. Laurent Caplette & Nicholas B. Turk-Browne, 2024. "Computational reconstruction of mental representations using human behavior," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-19, December.
    4. Hojin Jang & Frank Tong, 2024. "Improved modeling of human vision by incorporating robustness to blur in convolutional neural networks," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-14, December.
    5. Mengna Yao & Bincheng Wen & Mingpo Yang & Jiebin Guo & Haozhou Jiang & Chao Feng & Yilei Cao & Huiguang He & Le Chang, 2023. "High-dimensional topographic organization of visual features in the primate temporal lobe," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-23, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-021-27027-8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.