The Learning Brain

2016 ◽  
Vol 224 (4) ◽  
pp. 277-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Ahr ◽  
Grégoire Borst ◽  
Olivier Houdé
Keyword(s):  
Inhibitory Control ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Visual Recognition ◽  
Brain Area ◽  
Darwinian Evolution ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Visual Word Form Area ◽  
General Law ◽  
Mirror Generalization ◽  
School Training

Abstract. Reading is an example of complex learning specific to human beings. In readers, an area of the brain is dedicated to the visual processing of letters and words, referred to as the visual word form area (VWFA). The existence of this brain area is paradoxical. Reading is too recent to be a phylogenic product of Darwinian evolution. It likely develops with intense school training via a neuroplastic ontogenic process of neuronal recycling: neurons in the lateral occipitotemporal lobe originally tuned to the visual recognition of stimuli, such as faces, objects, and animals, will be recycled for the visual recognition of letters and words. Thus, the VWFA inherits the intrinsic properties of these neurons, notably, mirror generalization, a process (or heuristic) applied to all visual stimuli that enables the recognition of a stimulus irrespective of its left-right orientation. On its own, this inherited property is not adapted to reading because it makes children confuse mirror letters, such as b and d in the Latin alphabet. In this article, we present evidence that inhibitory control is critical to avoid mirror errors inherited from the neuronal recycling process by blocking the mirror generalization heuristic in the context of reading. We subsequently argue that the “neuronal recycling + inhibitory control” law constitutes a general law of the learning brain by demonstrating that it may also account for the development of numeracy.

Featural and Configural Processing of Faces and Houses in Matched Dyslexic and Typical Readers

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bahareh Jozranjbar ◽  
Arni Kristjansson ◽  
Heida Maria Sigurdardottir
Keyword(s):  
Object Recognition ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Reading Ability ◽  
Visual Recognition ◽  
Reading Deficits ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Configural Information ◽  
Lower House ◽  
Single Process ◽  
Processing Mechanisms

While dyslexia is typically described as a phonological deficit, recent evidence suggests that ventral stream regions, important for visual categorization and object recognition, are hypoactive in dyslexic readers who might accordingly show visual recognition deficits. By manipulating featural and configural information of faces and houses, we investigated whether dyslexic readers are disadvantaged at recognizing certain object classes or utilizing particular visual processing mechanisms. Dyslexic readers found it harder to recognize objects (houses), suggesting that visual problems in dyslexia are not completely domain-specific. Mean accuracy for faces was equivalent in the two groups, compatible with domain-specificity in face processing. While face recognition abilities correlated with reading ability, lower house accuracy was nonetheless related to reading difficulties even when accuracy for faces was kept constant, suggesting a specific relationship between visual word recognition and the recognition of non-face objects. Representational similarity analyses (RSA) revealed that featural and configural processes were clearly separable in typical readers, while dyslexic readers appeared to rely on a single process. This occurred for both faces and houses and was not restricted to particular visual categories. We speculate that reading deficits in some dyslexic readers reflect their reliance on a single process for object recognition.

scholarly journals The forest or the trees: preference for global over local image processing is reversed by prior experience in honeybees

2015 ◽  
Vol 282 (1799) ◽  
pp. 20142384 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aurore Avarguès-Weber ◽  
Adrian G. Dyer ◽  
Noha Ferrah ◽  
Martin Giurfa
Keyword(s):  
Visual Processing ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Visual Recognition ◽  
Spatial Configuration ◽  
Local Information ◽  
Insect Vision ◽  
Hierarchical Stimuli ◽  
Spatial Configurations ◽  
Holistic Perception ◽  
Local Cues

Traditional models of insect vision have assumed that insects are only capable of low-level analysis of local cues and are incapable of global, holistic perception. However, recent studies on honeybee ( Apis mellifera ) vision have refuted this view by showing that this insect also processes complex visual information by using spatial configurations or relational rules. In the light of these findings, we asked whether bees prioritize global configurations or local cues by setting these two levels of image analysis in competition. We trained individual free-flying honeybees to discriminate hierarchical visual stimuli within a Y-maze and tested bees with novel stimuli in which local and/or global cues were manipulated. We demonstrate that even when local information is accessible, bees prefer global information, thus relying mainly on the object's spatial configuration rather than on elemental, local information. This preference can be reversed if bees are pre-trained to discriminate isolated local cues. In this case, bees prefer the hierarchical stimuli with the local elements previously primed even if they build an incorrect global configuration. Pre-training with local cues induces a generic attentional bias towards any local elements as local information is prioritized in the test, even if the local cues used in the test are different from the pre-trained ones. Our results thus underline the plasticity of visual processing in insects and provide new insights for the comparative analysis of visual recognition in humans and animals.

Of Pongos and Men: Orangs-Outang in Rousseau's Discourse on Inequality

1995 ◽  
Vol 57 (4) ◽  
pp. 641-664 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francis Moron
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
European Society ◽  
Darwinian Evolution ◽  
The Political ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Human Species ◽  
State Of Nature ◽  
Primitive State ◽  
Viable Model

Rousseau's concept of human perfectibility and his suggestion that a group of anthropomorphic animals might actually be human beings in a primitive state of nature have led an increasing number of studies to cite his Discourse on Inequality for offering an early version of Darwinian evolution. I argue that a different picture emerges once we examine Rousseau's discussion against the backdrop of eighteenth-century debates on the viability of the chain of being and the possibility of multiple human species. The significance of his speculation has less to do with his special insights on human descent than with the political point to be made were it true. Rousseau uses orangs-outang like the pongo to construct a viable model for criticizing his contemporary Europe and to defend his claim that the kind of political inequalities associated with late European society do not issue from God or nature but are accidental events in the life of the species.

Successful inhibitory control over an immediate reward is associated with attentional disengagement in visual processing areas

NeuroImage ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
pp. 1841-1847 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. O'Connor ◽  
Sarah Rossiter ◽  
Murat Yücel ◽  
Dan I. Lubman ◽  
Robert Hester
Keyword(s):  
Inhibitory Control ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Attentional Disengagement

scholarly journals Contrast sensitivity, V1 neural activity, and natural vision

2017 ◽  
Vol 117 (2) ◽  
pp. 492-508 ◽  
Author(s):  
James E. Niemeyer ◽  
Michael A. Paradiso
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Contrast Sensitivity ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Brain Area ◽  
Saccadic Eye Movements ◽  
Visual Sensitivity ◽  
Natural Image ◽  
Spatial Frequencies ◽  
Natural Vision ◽  
Common Laboratory

Contrast sensitivity is fundamental to natural visual processing and an important tool for characterizing both visual function and clinical disorders. We simultaneously measured contrast sensitivity and neural contrast response functions and compared measurements in common laboratory conditions with naturalistic conditions. In typical experiments, a subject holds fixation and a stimulus is flashed on, whereas in natural vision, saccades bring stimuli into view. Motivated by our previous V1 findings, we tested the hypothesis that perceptual contrast sensitivity is lower in natural vision and that this effect is associated with corresponding changes in V1 activity. We found that contrast sensitivity and V1 activity are correlated and that the relationship is similar in laboratory and naturalistic paradigms. However, in the more natural situation, contrast sensitivity is reduced up to 25% compared with that in a standard fixation paradigm, particularly at lower spatial frequencies, and this effect correlates with significant reductions in V1 responses. Our data suggest that these reductions in natural vision result from fast adaptation on one fixation that lowers the response on a subsequent fixation. This is the first demonstration of rapid, natural-image adaptation that carries across saccades, a process that appears to constantly influence visual sensitivity in natural vision. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Visual sensitivity and activity in brain area V1 were studied in a paradigm that included saccadic eye movements and natural visual input. V1 responses and contrast sensitivity were significantly reduced compared with results in common laboratory paradigms. The parallel neural and perceptual effects of eye movements and stimulus complexity appear to be due to a form of rapid adaptation that carries across saccades.

The Effect of Feature Displacement on Face Recognition

Perception ◽  
1984 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 505-512 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nigel D Haig
Keyword(s):  
Image Processing ◽  
Face Recognition ◽  
Visual Recognition ◽  
High Sensitivity ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Monitor Screen ◽  
High Significance ◽  
Facial Images ◽  
Vertical Positioning ◽  
Very High

Human beings possess a remarkable ability to recognise familiar faces quickly and without apparent effort. In spite of this facility, the mechanisms of visual recognition remain tantalisingly obscure. An experiment is reported in which image processing equipment was used to displace slightly the features of a set of original facial images to form groups of modified images. Observers were then required to indicate whether they were being shown the “original” or a “modified” face, when shown one face at a time on a TV monitor screen. Memory reinforcement was provided by displaying the original face at another screen position, between presentations. The data show, inter alia, the very high significance of the vertical positioning of the mouth, followed by eyes, and then the nose, as well as high sensitivity to close-set eyes, coupled with marked insensitivity to wide-set eyes. Implications of the results for the use of recognition aids such as Identikit and Photofit are briefly discussed.

scholarly journals REPRESENTATION OF 3-D VOLUMETRIC OBJECT FROM THE PANTOMIME EFFECT AND SHADING CUES IN HUMAN BRAIN

2007 ◽  
Vol 21 (08) ◽  
pp. 1307-1322
Author(s):  
QI ZHANG ◽  
KEN MOGI
Keyword(s):  
Human Brain ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Binocular Disparity ◽  
Object Perception ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Brain Areas ◽  
Human Ability ◽  
Visual Areas ◽  
Visual Phenomenon

Human ability to process visual information of outside world is yet far ahead of man-made systems in accuracy and speed. In particular, human beings can perceive 3-D object from various cues, such as binocular disparity and monocular shading cues. Understanding of the mechanism of human visual processing will lead to a breakthrough in creating artificial visual systems. Here, we study the human 3-D volumetric object perception that is induced by a visual phenomenon named as the pantomime effect and by the monocular shading cues. We measured human brain activities using fMRI when the subjects were observing the visual stimuli. A coordinated system of brain areas, including those in the prefrontal and parietal cortex, in addition to the occipital visual areas was found to be involved in the volumetric object perception.

scholarly journals Projections of the Mouse Primary Visual Cortex

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arbora Resulaj
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Primary Visual Cortex ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Brain Area ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Projection Neurons ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
And Function ◽  
To Receive

Lesion or damage to the primary visual cortex (V1) results in a profound loss of visual perception in humans. Similarly, in mice, optogenetic silencing of V1 profoundly impairs discrimination of orientated gratings. V1 is thought to have such a critical role in perception in part due to its position in the visual processing hierarchy. It is the first brain area in the neocortex to receive visual input, and it distributes this information to more than 18 brain areas. Here I review recent advances in our understanding of the organization and function of the V1 projections in the mouse. This progress is in part due to new anatomical and viral techniques that allow for efficient labeling of projection neurons. In the final part of the review, I conclude by highlighting challenges and opportunities for future research.

scholarly journals A Synoptic and Theoretical Account of Character (Digits and Capital Letters) Reversal in Writings by Typically Developing Children

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Paul Fischer ◽  
Christophe Luxembourger
Keyword(s):  
Educational Psychology ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Left Hand ◽  
Comprehensive Theory ◽  
Early Visual Processing ◽  
Mirror Generalization ◽  
Hand Writing ◽  
Neuropsychological Findings

Reversing characters (digits and letters) when writing, and complete mirror writing, raise one of the oldest and most mysterious questions in developmental and educational psychology: Why do five-year-old children write symbols (e.g., ꓱ for E) they have neither learnt nor seen? Attempts to draw up a complete explanatory theory of character reversal in writings by typically developing children were long hindered by the existence of a seemingly satisfactory explanation (left-hand writing), the failure to bring together research in neuropsychology and educational psychology, and the failure to consider the shape and structure of the characters. The present paper remedies this situation by describing a new, comprehensive theory based on recent neuropsychological findings and extensive empirical observations. The theory assumes that a character’s orientation, detected in the early visual processing area, is deleted (or made inaccessible) by the mirror generalization process during transfer to memory. Consequently, there is a period, usually around age five, during which children have representations of the characters’ shapes but not their orientations. Hence, when asked to write a character, children have to improvise its orientation, and the orientation they choose (implicitly, non-consciously) is often derived from the writing direction in their culture.

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