Perception

Where and when the brain recognizes, categorizes an object

January 28, 2014

MIT researchers combined fMRI and MEG data to reveal which parts of the brain are active shortly after an image is seen. At around 60 milliseconds, only early visual cortex in the back of the brain was active (image at left). Then, activity spread to brain regions involved in later visual processing until the inferior temporal cortex was activated (image at right). This brain region represents complex shapes and categories of objects. (Credit: Radoslaw Martin Cichy, Dimitrios Pantazis, Aude Oliva)

MIT researchers scanned individuals’ brains as they looked at different images and were able to pinpoint, to the millisecond, when the brain recognizes and categorizes an object, and where these processes occur.

“This method gives you a visualization of ‘when’ and ‘where’ at the same time. It’s a window into processes happening at the millisecond and millimeter scale,” saysAude Oliva, a principal research scientist in MIT’sComputer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory(CSAIL).

Oliva is the senior author of a paper describing the findings in the Jan. 26 issue of Nature Neuroscience. Lead author of the paper is CSAIL postdoc Radoslaw Cichy. Dimitrios Pantazis, a research scientist at MIT’sMcGovern Institute for Brain Research, is also an author of the paper./.../