Abstract
The ability to rapidly and accurately recognise complex objects is a crucial function of the human visual system. Successful object recognition requires binding incoming visual features such as colour and form into specific neural representations that can be compared to our pre-existing knowledge about the world. For some objects, typical colour is a central feature for recognition; for example, a banana is typically yellow. Here, we examine the timecourse over which features such as colour and form are bound together by using multivariate pattern analyses of time-resolved neuroimaging (magnetoencephalography) data. Consistent with a traditional hierarchical view, we show that single object features are processed before the features are bound into a coherent object that can be compared with existing, conceptual object representations. Our data also suggest that colour processing is be affected by the conjunction of object and colour. These results provide new insights into the interaction between our knowledge about the world and incoming visual information.