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Processing multiple visual objects is limited by overlap in neural channels.

ABSTRACT: High-level visual categories (e.g., faces, bodies, scenes, and objects) have separable neural representations across the visual cortex. Here, we show that this division of neural resources affects the ability to simultaneously process multiple items. In a behavioral task, we found that performance was superior when items were drawn from different categories (e.g., two faces/two scenes) compared to when items were drawn from one category (e.g., four faces). The magnitude of this mixed-category benefit depended on which stimulus categories were paired together (e.g., faces and scenes showed a greater behavioral benefit than objects and scenes). Using functional neuroimaging (i.e., functional MRI), we showed that the size of the mixed-category benefit was predicted by the amount of separation between neural response patterns, particularly within occipitotemporal cortex. These results suggest that the ability to process multiple items at once is limited by the extent to which those items are represented by separate neural populations.

SUBMITTER: Cohen MA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4066506 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Processing multiple visual objects is limited by overlap in neural channels.

Cohen Michael A MA Konkle Talia T Rhee Juliana Y JY Nakayama Ken K Alvarez George A GA

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20140602 24

High-level visual categories (e.g., faces, bodies, scenes, and objects) have separable neural representations across the visual cortex. Here, we show that this division of neural resources affects the ability to simultaneously process multiple items. In a behavioral task, we found that performance was superior when items were drawn from different categories (e.g., two faces/two scenes) compared to when items were drawn from one category (e.g., four faces). The magnitude of this mixed-category be ...[more]

PMID: 24889618

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Project description:IntroductionA central question in infant spatial cognition concerns how infants form abstract categories of spatial relations such as support (on) and containment (in). Prior work suggests two different possibilities regarding the role of attention to objects in infants' formation of abstract categories of spatial relations: Attention to objects may compete with (and thus hamper) attention to the spatial relations between them, or assist with encoding of the spatial relation information. Using eye-tracking, we examined how infants' visual attention to objects related to their successful formation of an abstract category of support relations (i.e., an object on another).MethodsThirty-eight 8-month-old infants' eye movements were recorded during a support categorization task, where infants were habituated to four dynamic events depicting support relations (e.g., resting a block on a box) and then presented with test events that depicted either a support or containment relation with objects that they had seen or not seen in the habituation phase. Based on their looking time to the familiar versus novel spatial relation in the test, infants were classified into two groups: categorizers, who formed an abstract category of a support relation, and non-categorizers, who did not do so.ResultsDuring their initial phase of learning (i.e., the first habituation trial), categorizers paid greater attention to the object moved by a hand (i.e., the dynamic object) in comparison to non-categorizers, whereas their attention to the static object or their gaze shifts between the two objects did not differ. In addition, when presented with novel objects in a novel spatial relation after habituation, only categorizers displayed asymmetric attention between the objects, attending to the dynamic object more than the static object. Gaze shifts and attention to the concave area (i.e., hole) of the container did not differ between categorizers and non-categorizers.DiscussionThese findings suggest that infants' focused attention to an object in motion may play a key role in young infants' spatial category learning, and support the idea that attention to objects can assist with encoding of the spatial relational information.

Dataset Information

Processing multiple visual objects is limited by overlap in neural channels.

Publications

Processing multiple visual objects is limited by overlap in neural channels.

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