Construction of invariant shape selectivity in the ventral visual stream

腹侧视觉流中不变形状选择性的构建

• 批准号: 7995177
• 负责人: James J DiCarlo
• 金额: $ 39.07万
• 依托单位: MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2004
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2004-04-01 至 2014-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7995177
• 关键词: Address; Adult; Anterior; Area; Brain; Categories; Chronic; Computer Simulation; Development; Electrodes; Eye; Funding; Goals; Human; Image; Inferior; Lead; Learning; Lighting; Longitudinal Studies; Methods; Monkeys; Movement; Neurons; Neurosciences; Pattern; Personal Satisfaction; Population; Population Dynamics; Positioning Attribute; Primates; Problem Solving; Process; Property; Psychophysics; Research; Retinal; Role; Sampling; Series; Shapes; Staging; Stream; Temporal Lobe; Testing; Time; Visual; Visual attention; Visual system structure; Work; area V4; awake; comparative; experience; extrastriate visual cortex; feeding; neuronal patterning; neurophysiology; nonhuman primate; object recognition; population based; public health relevance; research study; visual information; visual stimulus

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): A fundamental goal of perceptual neuroscience is to understand the neuronal representations that underlie our remarkable ability to perceive, recognize, and remember visual objects. In humans and non-human primates, these representations are produced by processing along the ventral visual stream, and conveyed by patterns of neuronal activity in its highest level -- the monkey inferior temporal cortex (IT). The key computational problem the ventral stream solves is that it produces an IT neuronal representation of visual images that conveys selectivity for object identity and category, with tolerance ("invariance") to changes in object position, size, pose, illumination and clutter. Indeed, although the shape selectivity properties of the ventral stream have received much study, we know very little about the mechanisms that construct that tolerance. The goal of this proposal is a mechanistic understanding of how the ventral visual stream constructs the tolerant ("invariant") visual shape selectivity that underlies our object recognition abilities. In Aim 1 we ask: does naturally-acquired temporally contiguous experience "instruct" the formation of tolerance in the ventral stream? We have recently discovered that the tolerance of IT neuronal shape selectivity can be strongly and rapidly sculpted by altered temporal contiguity of unsupervised visual object experience. In this aim, we will use a series of closely-related visual experience manipulations to systematically test and characterize the role of this plasticity in position, size, and pose tolerance learning. This will illuminate its role in instructing adult visual object representation, and set the stage for longer-term studies of how these powerful representations are assembled during early development. In Aim 2 we will take a comparative approach to ask how object information is transformed across two ventral stream areas (V4 vs. IT). Using the same monkeys, same task, and same visual stimuli, we will use neuronal population methods to ask: How is the tolerance of the IT representation changed from the V4 representation? Is V4 shape selectivity preserved in the IT representation? Does the sparseness of visual representation change from V4 to IT? How does tolerant shape selectivity evolve in real time? Together, these experiments will inform a central question: "How is the tolerant object selectivity in IT built from earlier visual representation?", and the results will provide strong constraints on computational models of the ventral visual stream and guide our understanding of cortical information transformation more generally. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Visual object recognition is fundamental to our well-being and our brain is remarkably good at solving this problem even though the same object can appear very differently to our eyes. The overarching goal of these experiments is a mechanistic understanding of how the visual system constructs the patterns of neuronal activity that solve this problem. This will lead to an understanding of the brain processes that allow us to see and evaluate the visual world (e.g. recognize and remember objects).

描述（由申请人提供）：感知神经科学的一个基本目标是了解我们具有出色感知，识别和记住视觉对象的非凡能力的神经元表示。在人类和非人类灵长类动物中，这些表示是通过沿着腹侧视觉流进行处理的，并通过其最高水平的神经元活性模式传达的 - 猴子下颞皮层（IT）。腹侧流解决的关键计算问题是，它产生了视觉图像的IT神经元表示，该图像传达了对象标识和类别的选择性，耐受性（“不变性”）以变化对象位置，大小，姿势，照明和杂物。确实，尽管腹侧流的形状选择性特性已经获得了很多研究，但我们对构建公差的机制知之甚少。该建议的目的是对腹侧视觉流如何构建宽敞（“不变”）视觉形状选择性的机械理解，该视觉形状的选择性是我们对象识别能力的基础。在AIM 1中，我们问：自然获得的时间连续体验是否会“指导”腹侧的耐受性形成？我们最近发现，通过改变无监督的视觉对象体验的时间连续性改变了IT神经元形状选择性的耐受性。在此目标中，我们将使用一系列密切相关的视觉体验操纵来系统地测试和表征这种可塑性在位置，大小和姿势耐受性学习中的作用。这将阐明其在指导成人视觉对象表示方面的作用，并为长期研究为如何在早期开发过程中组装而成。在AIM 2中，我们将采用一种比较方法来询问如何在两个腹流区域（V4 vs. IT）转换对象信息。使用相同的猴子，相同的任务和相同的视觉刺激，我们将使用神经元种群方法来询问：IT表示的耐受性与V4表示形式有何变化？ IT表示中是否保留了V4形状的选择性？视觉表示的稀疏性会从v4变化吗？耐受形状的选择性如何实时发展？这些实验将共同提出一个中心问题：“ IT中的耐受物体选择性是如何从早期的视觉表示形式构建的？”，结果将对腹侧视觉流的计算模型提供强大的限制，并更广泛地指导我们对皮质信息转换的理解。 公共卫生相关性：视觉对象识别对我们的福祉至关重要，我们的大脑也非常擅长解决这个问题，即使相同的对象可能与我们的眼睛看起来非常不同。这些实验的总体目标是对视觉系统如何构建解决此问题的神经元活动模式的机械理解。这将导致对大脑过程的理解，使我们能够看到和评估视觉世界（例如识别和记住对象）。