Invariant Recognition Shapes Neural Representations of Visual Input

Andrea Tacchetti, Leyla Isik, Tomaso A. Poggio
2018 Annual Review of Vision Science  
Recognizing the people, objects, and actions in the world around us is a crucial aspect of human perception that allows us to plan and act in our environment. Remarkably, our proficiency in recognizing semantic categories from visual input is unhindered by transformations that substantially alter their appearance (e.g., changes in lighting or position). The ability to generalize across these complex transformations is a hallmark of human visual intelligence, which has been the focus of
more » ... ing investigation in systems and computational neuroscience. However, while the neural machinery of human visual perception has been thoroughly described, the computational principles dictating its functioning remain unknown. Here, we review recent results in brain imaging, neurophysiology, and computational neuroscience in support of the hypothesis that the ability to support the invariant recognition of semantic entities in the visual world shapes which neural representations of sensory input are computed by human visual cortex. 403 Annu. Rev. Vis. Sci. 2018.4:403-422. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org Access provided by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on 10/09/18. For personal use only. www.annualreviews.org • Invariant Recognition 405 Annu. Rev. Vis. Sci. 2018.4:403-422. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org Access provided by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on 10/09/18. For personal use only. 408 Tacchetti · Isik · Poggio Annu. Rev. Vis. Sci. 2018.4:403-422. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org Access provided by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on 10/09/18. For personal use only.
doi:10.1146/annurev-vision-091517-034103 pmid:30052494 fatcat:hztby7443jgzzp5mjvmfc7coou