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Shape-coding in IT cells generalizes over contrast and mirror reversal, but not figure-ground reversal

Nature Neuroscience volume 4, pages 937–942 (2001)Cite this article

Abstract

We assessed how the visual shape preferences of neurons in the inferior temporal cortex of awake, behaving monkeys generalized across three different stimulus transformations. Stimulus-preferences of particular cells among different polygon displays were correlated across reversed contrast polarity or mirror reversal, but not across figure–ground reversal. This corresponds with psychological findings on human shape judgments. Our results imply that neurons in inferior temporal cortex respond to components of visual shape derived only after figure–ground assignment of contours, not to the contours themselves.

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Figure 1: Example stimuli.
Figure 2: Correlation plots for a single cell.
Figure 3: Firing rates in response to the 32 stimuli for a single cell.
Figure 4: Peri-stimulus time histograms of firing, using 20 ms bins, for the illustrative cell.
Figure 5: Correlations of ranked stimulus preferences for each of the three transforms in the cell population.
Figure 6: Population response to preferred versus non-preferred stimuli across the three stimulus transforms.
Figure 7: Regions of IT cortex in which the cells were recorded, drawn on sections from the brain of monkey A.

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Acknowledgements

G.C.B. was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (R29 NS27296) and the National Science Foundation (SBR 96-16555). J.D. was supported by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (UK).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Plymouth, Plymouth Institute of Neuroscience, 12 Kirkby Place, Plymouth, PL4 8AA, UK

    Gordon C. Baylis

  2. Department of Psychology, University of South Carolina, Columbia, 29208, South Carolina, USA

    Gordon C. Baylis

  3. Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, 17 Queen Square, London, WC1N 3AR, UK

    Jon Driver

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Correspondence to Gordon C. Baylis or Jon Driver.

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Baylis, G., Driver, J. Shape-coding in IT cells generalizes over contrast and mirror reversal, but not figure-ground reversal. Nat Neurosci 4, 937–942 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn0901-937

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