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Imaging the Brain with Optical Methods pp 93–117Cite as

How Images of Objects Are Represented in Macaque Inferotemporal Cortex

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Abstract

Visual object recognition is a simple and easy task in our daily life. However, the mechanisms for recognizing objects are not at all simple nor easy. To understand neural mechanisms of object recognition, we have investigated representation of object images in macaque inferior temporal cortex that is the area essential for object recognition. Optical intrinsic signal imaging has revealed that object images are represented by the combinatorial code at the columnar level, where each column represents a visual feature of object images. The visual features represented by columns include local features as well as global features representing spatial arrangements of local features. Here, columns are supposed to be functional units for object representation. However, difference in object selectivity among nearby cells does not support the concept of columns as the functional units. Quantitative analysis of object responses of single cells and population activity revealed that each cell in a columnar region is characterized by cell specific property and property common across the cells in the columnar region, suggesting two different levels (single cell and columnar level) of object representation. Possible role of these two levels of object representation will be discussed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory for Integrative Neural Systems, RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Wako, Saitama, 351-0198, Japan

    Manabu Tanifuji

Authors
  1. Manabu Tanifuji
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  2. Takayuki Sato
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  3. Go Uchida
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  4. Yukako Yamane
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  5. Kazushige Tsunoda
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Manabu Tanifuji .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Psychology, Vanderbilt University, 21st Avenue South 111, Nashville, 37203, U.S.A.

    Anna W. Roe

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Tanifuji, M., Sato, T., Uchida, G., Yamane, Y., Tsunoda, K. (2009). How Images of Objects Are Represented in Macaque Inferotemporal Cortex. In: Roe, A. (eds) Imaging the Brain with Optical Methods. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0452-2_5

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