Neuronal Learning of Invariant Object Representation in the Ventral Visual Stream Is Not Dependent on Reward
Neurons at the top of primate ventral visual stream [inferior temporal cortex (IT)] have selectivity for objects that is highly tolerant to variation in the object's appearance on the retina. Previous nonhuman primate (Macaca mulatta) studies suggest that this neuronal tolerance is at least par...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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Society for Neuroscience
2012
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/75402 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1592-5896 |
| _version_ | 1826213476314382336 |
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| author | Li, Nuo DiCarlo, James |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Li, Nuo DiCarlo, James |
| author_sort | Li, Nuo |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Neurons at the top of primate ventral visual stream [inferior temporal cortex (IT)] have selectivity for objects that is highly tolerant to variation in the object's appearance on the retina. Previous nonhuman primate (Macaca mulatta) studies suggest that this neuronal tolerance is at least partly supported by the natural temporal contiguity of visual experience, because altering that temporal contiguity can robustly alter adult IT position and size tolerance. According to that work, it is the statistics of the subject's visual experience, not the subject's reward, that instruct the specific images that IT treats as equivalent. But is reward necessary for gating this type of learning in the ventral stream? Here we show that this is not the case—temporal tolerance learning proceeds at the same rate, regardless of reward magnitude and regardless of the temporal co-occurrence of reward, even in a behavioral task that does not require the subject to engage the object images. This suggests that the ventral visual stream uses autonomous, fully unsupervised mechanisms to constantly leverage all visual experience to help build its invariant object representation. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T15:49:49Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/75402 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T15:49:49Z |
| publishDate | 2012 |
| publisher | Society for Neuroscience |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/754022022-09-29T16:25:30Z Neuronal Learning of Invariant Object Representation in the Ventral Visual Stream Is Not Dependent on Reward Li, Nuo DiCarlo, James Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT Li, Nuo DiCarlo, James Neurons at the top of primate ventral visual stream [inferior temporal cortex (IT)] have selectivity for objects that is highly tolerant to variation in the object's appearance on the retina. Previous nonhuman primate (Macaca mulatta) studies suggest that this neuronal tolerance is at least partly supported by the natural temporal contiguity of visual experience, because altering that temporal contiguity can robustly alter adult IT position and size tolerance. According to that work, it is the statistics of the subject's visual experience, not the subject's reward, that instruct the specific images that IT treats as equivalent. But is reward necessary for gating this type of learning in the ventral stream? Here we show that this is not the case—temporal tolerance learning proceeds at the same rate, regardless of reward magnitude and regardless of the temporal co-occurrence of reward, even in a behavioral task that does not require the subject to engage the object images. This suggests that the ventral visual stream uses autonomous, fully unsupervised mechanisms to constantly leverage all visual experience to help build its invariant object representation. National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant R01-EY014970) National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (National Research Service Award 1F31EY020057) McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience 2012-12-12T14:45:45Z 2012-12-12T14:45:45Z 2012-05 2012-03 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0270-6474 1529-2401 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/75402 Li, N., and J. J. DiCarlo. “Neuronal Learning of Invariant Object Representation in the Ventral Visual Stream Is Not Dependent on Reward.” Journal of Neuroscience 32.19 (2012): 6611–6620. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1592-5896 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.3786-11.2012 Journal of Neuroscience Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf Society for Neuroscience SFN |
| spellingShingle | Li, Nuo DiCarlo, James Neuronal Learning of Invariant Object Representation in the Ventral Visual Stream Is Not Dependent on Reward |
| title | Neuronal Learning of Invariant Object Representation in the Ventral Visual Stream Is Not Dependent on Reward |
| title_full | Neuronal Learning of Invariant Object Representation in the Ventral Visual Stream Is Not Dependent on Reward |
| title_fullStr | Neuronal Learning of Invariant Object Representation in the Ventral Visual Stream Is Not Dependent on Reward |
| title_full_unstemmed | Neuronal Learning of Invariant Object Representation in the Ventral Visual Stream Is Not Dependent on Reward |
| title_short | Neuronal Learning of Invariant Object Representation in the Ventral Visual Stream Is Not Dependent on Reward |
| title_sort | neuronal learning of invariant object representation in the ventral visual stream is not dependent on reward |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/75402 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1592-5896 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT linuo neuronallearningofinvariantobjectrepresentationintheventralvisualstreamisnotdependentonreward AT dicarlojames neuronallearningofinvariantobjectrepresentationintheventralvisualstreamisnotdependentonreward |