Object vision articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    The functional organisation of the inferotemporal cortex is not well understood. Here, the authors construct a multi-dimensional space of visual features using deep neural networks, and show the spatial organisation of feature preference in both human and monkey inferotemporal cortex.

    • Mengna Yao
    • , Bincheng Wen
    •  & Le Chang
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Visual crowding is a phenomenon where objects presented in the visual periphery are not resolved efficiently. Here the authors show that crowding may derive from an optimizing strategy that blends information when it is similar and preserves it when it is dissimilar.

    • Guido Marco Cicchini
    • , Giovanni D’Errico
    •  & David Charles Burr
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Anterior face patches in the macaque have been assumed to represent face identity in a holistic manner. Here the authors show that the neural encoding of face identity in the anterior medial and anterior fundus face patches are instead driven principally by local features.

    • Elena N. Waidmann
    • , Kenji W. Koyano
    •  & David A. Leopold
  • Article
    | Open Access

    It is unknown whether object category learning can be formed purely through domain general learning of natural image structure. Here the authors show that human visual brain responses to objects are well-captured by self-supervised deep neural network models trained without labels, supporting a domain-general account.

    • Talia Konkle
    •  & George A. Alvarez
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Face-selective neurons are observed in the primate visual pathway and are considered as the basis of face detection in the brain. Here, using a hierarchical deep neural network model of the ventral visual stream, the authors suggest that face selectivity arises in the complete absence of training.

    • Seungdae Baek
    • , Min Song
    •  & Se-Bum Paik
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Visual recognition depends on the ability to extract specific shape and colour features from complicated natural scenes. Here, the authors show that neurons along the object-recognition cortical pathway encode information-concentrating features of moderate complexity and of behavioural relevance.

    • Olivia Rose
    • , James Johnson
    •  & Carlos R. Ponce
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Priors learnt from lifetime experiences influence perception. The authors show that when perception is congruent with a long-term prior, there is increased top-down input in the ventral visual stream, whereas bottom-up input is enhanced when perception is incongruent with prior.

    • Richard Hardstone
    • , Michael Zhu
    •  & Biyu J. He
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Rapid and spontaneous estimation of number is observed in many animals. Here the authors show that perceived number of items modulates the pupillary light response in humans, confirming its spontaneous nature, and introducing pupillometry as a tool to study numerical cognition.

    • Elisa Castaldi
    • , Antonella Pomè
    •  & Paola Binda
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cortical and subcortical neural activity supporting conscious object recognition has not yet been well defined. Here, the authors describe these networks and show recognition-related category information can be decoded from widespread cortical activity but not subcortical activity.

    • Max Levinson
    • , Ella Podvalny
    •  & Biyu J. He
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Deep neural networks are widely considered as good models for biological vision. Here, we describe several qualitative similarities and differences in object representations between brains and deep networks that elucidate when deep networks can be considered good models for biological vision and how they can be improved.

    • Georgin Jacob
    • , R. T. Pramod
    •  & S. P. Arun
  • Article
    | Open Access

    In Old World primates, socially relevant face processing is accomplished via a distributed functional network including specialized patches in the frontal cortex. Here, the authors demonstrate a similar network in frontal cortex of New World marmoset monkeys, suggesting inheritance from a common ancestor.

    • David J. Schaeffer
    • , Janahan Selvanayagam
    •  & Stefan Everling
  • Article
    | Open Access

    The human brain is specialised for face processing, yet sometimes objects are perceived as illusory faces. Here, the authors show that illusory faces are initially represented similarly to real faces, but the representation quickly transforms into one equivalent to ordinary objects.

    • Susan G. Wardle
    • , Jessica Taubert
    •  & Chris I. Baker
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Visual cognition compensates for small changes in an object’s appearance to ensure its perceived continuity. We show that in situations with multiple objects, context features like color, temporal or spatial position are used as anchors to selectively integrate corresponding objects over time.

    • Cora Fischer
    • , Stefan Czoschke
    •  & Christoph Bledowski
  • Article
    | Open Access

    It remains unclear whether the functional organization of the visual cortex is shaped by genetic or environmental factors. Using fMRI in twins (n = 424), these authors show that activation patterns in category-selective areas are heritable, and that the genetic effects in these areas are linked to structural properties of cortical tissue.

    • Nooshin Abbasi
    • , John Duncan
    •  & Reza Rajimehr
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Visual objects from similar semantic categories present activity patterns that cluster together in higher visual areas. The authors show that conscious access differs between semantic categories and is driven by category-related visual features commonly associated with processing in higher level visual areas.

    • Daniel Lindh
    • , Ilja G. Sligte
    •  & Ian Charest
  • Article
    | Open Access

    The effect of spontaneous variations in prestimulus neural activity on subsequent perception is incompletely understood. Here, using MEG, the authors identify two distinct neural processes that can influence object recognition in different ways.

    • Ella Podvalny
    • , Matthew W. Flounders
    •  & Biyu J. He
  • Article
    | Open Access

    What is the function of color vision? Here, the authors show that when retinal mechanisms of color are impaired, memory has a paradoxical impact on color appearance that is selective for faces, providing evidence that color contributes to face encoding and social communication.

    • Maryam Hasantash
    • , Rosa Lafer-Sousa
    •  & Bevil R. Conway
  • Article
    | Open Access

    The visual system excels at segregating moving objects from their backgrounds, a key visual function hypothesized to be driven by suppressive centre-surround mechanisms. Here, the authors show that spatial suppression of background motion signals is critical for rapid segmentation of moving objects.

    • Duje Tadin
    • , Woon Ju Park
    •  & Randolph Blake
  • Article
    | Open Access

    The praying mantis, a predatory insect, estimates depth via binocular vision. In this way, the animal decides whether prey is within reach. Here, the authors explore the neural correlates of binocular distance estimation and report that individual neurons are tuned to specific locations in 3D space.

    • Ronny Rosner
    • , Joss von Hadeln
    •  & Jenny C. A. Read
  • Article
    | Open Access

    We can rapidly determine the gender, age and identity of a face, but the exact steps involved are unclear. Here, the authors show using magnetoencephalography (MEG) that gender and age are encoded in the brain before identity, and reveal the role of familiarity in the earliest stages of face processing.

    • Katharina Dobs
    • , Leyla Isik
    •  & Nancy Kanwisher
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Adaptation is thought to improve discrimination by pulling neural representations of similar stimuli farther apart. Here, the authors separately show that adaptation to a 3D shape class leads to better discrimination performance on similar shapes, and activity patterns diverge in object selective cortical areas.

    • Marcelo G. Mattar
    • , Maria Olkkonen
    •  & Geoffrey K. Aguirre
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Inferotemporal cortex (IT) neurons respond to specific objects but the precise neural mechanisms for clutter-invariant representation is not known. Here the authors show that face and body patch IT neurons respond to multiple objects with winner-take-all, contralateral-take-all or weighted averaging depending on the stimulus properties.

    • Pinglei Bao
    •  & Doris Y. Tsao
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Blurred edges of objects can aid in depth perception and segmentation, yet how it is combined with shape information in the visual pathway is unknown. Here the authors report that neurons in higher visual area V4 represent both object shape and boundary blur, controlling for stimulus size, intensity and curvature.

    • Timothy D. Oleskiw
    • , Amy Nowack
    •  & Anitha Pasupathy
  • Article
    | Open Access

    V2 neurons exhibit complex and diverse selectivity for visual features. Here the authors use a statistical analytical framework to model V2 responses to natural stimuli and find three organizing principles, chief among them is the cross-orientation suppression that increases response selectivity.

    • Ryan J. Rowekamp
    •  & Tatyana O. Sharpee
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Machine learning algorithms can decode objects that people see or imagine from their brain activity. Here the authors present a predictive decoder combined with deep neural network representations that generalizes beyond the training set and correctly identifies novel objects that it has never been trained on.

    • Tomoyasu Horikawa
    •  & Yukiyasu Kamitani
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Hypothalamus is important for regulating feeding behaviour. Here the authors report genetic identification of neurons in the pretecto-hypothalamic circuit, and their causal involvement in prey detection and prey capture, using a combination of functional imaging and ablation studies in freely swimming zebrafish larvae.

    • Akira Muto
    • , Pradeep Lal
    •  & Koichi Kawakami
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Adult visual cortex is organized into regions that respond to categories such as faces and scenes, but it is unclear if this depends on experience. Here, authors measured brain activity in 4–6 month old infants looking at faces and scenes and find that their visual cortex is organized similarly to adults.

    • Ben Deen
    • , Hilary Richardson
    •  & Rebecca Saxe
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Perceiving objects as lifelike is an inferential process but whether it occurs quickly and how it applies to groups of objects is not well understood. Here the authors show that observers’ percepts of crowd lifelikeness are fast and represent the average of the individual objects comprising that crowd.

    • Allison Yamanashi Leib
    • , Anna Kosovicheva
    •  & David Whitney