Chapter 1 Top-down facilitation of visual object recognition: object-based and context-based contributions
Section snippets
An object-based cortical mechanism for triggering top-down facilitation
The traditional view regarding visual processing is that an input image is processed in a bottom-up cascade of cortical regions that analyze increasingly complex information. This view stems from the well-defined functional architecture of the visual cortex, which has a clear hierarchical structure. However, several models propose that both bottom-up and top-down analyses can occur in the cortex simultaneously (Grossberg, 1980; Kosslyn, 1994; Ullman, 1995; Desimone, 1998; Engel et al., 2001;
A context-based cortical mechanism for triggering top-down facilitation
In addition to the top-down benefit provided by prefrontal analysis of cursory object information, recognition efficiency can be increased through processes that take advantage of naturally occurring regularities in the environment (Gibson, 1969). A lifetime of visual experience can thereby guide expectations about which objects are likely to appear in a given setting to aid subsequent recognition of those objects through their contextual associations (Biederman, 1972, Biederman, 1981; Palmer,
Integrated object- and context-based top-down facilitation of recognition
In this overview, we have described how top-down facilitation of recognition can be achieved either (1) through an object-based mechanism that generates “initial guesses” about an object's identity using rapidly analyzed coarse information about the input image or (2) through the predictive information provided by contextual associations between an object or a scene and the other objects that are likely to appear together in a particular setting. However, it is clear that objects do not appear
Abbreviations
- fMRI:
functional magnetic resonance imaging
- MEG:
magnetoencephalography
- OFC:
orbitofrontal cortex
- PFC:
prefrontal cortex
- PHC:
parahippocampal cortex
- PPA:
parahippocampal place area
- RSC:
retrosplenial complex
- RT:
response time
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by NINDS R01-NS44319 and RO1-NS050615, NCRR P41-RR14075, and the MIND Institute.
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