Spatiotemporal neural dynamics of object recognition under uncertainty in humans

Abstract
Data availability
Article and author information
Metrics

Abstract

While there is a wealth of knowledge about core object recognition-our ability to recognize clear, high-contrast object images, how the brain accomplishes object recognition tasks under increased uncertainty remains poorly understood. We investigated the spatiotemporal neural dynamics underlying object recognition under increased uncertainty by combining MEG and 7 Tesla fMRI in humans during a threshold-level object recognition task. We observed an early, parallel rise of recognition-related signals across ventral visual and frontoparietal regions that preceded the emergence of category-related information. Recognition-related signals in ventral visual regions were best explained by a two-state representational format whereby brain activity bifurcated for recognized and unrecognized images. By contrast, recognition-related signals in frontoparietal regions exhibited a reduced representational space for recognized images, yet with sharper category information. These results provide a spatiotemporally resolved view of neural activity supporting object recognition under uncertainty, revealing a pattern distinct from that underlying core object recognition.

Data availability

The analysis code, data and code to reproduce all figures can be downloaded athttps://github.com/BiyuHeLab/HLTP_Fusion_Wu2022/tree/submission

Article and author information

Author details

Yuan-hao Wu

Neuroscience Institute, New York University, New York, United States

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-5631-5082
Ella Podvalny

Neuroscience Institute, New York University, New York, United States

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Biyu J He

Neuroscience Institute, New York University, New York, United States

For correspondence
biyu.jade.he@gmail.com

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-1549-1351

Funding

National Institutes of Health (R01EY032085)

Biyu J He

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Ethics

Human subjects: Data collection procedures followed protocols approved by the institutional review boards of the intramural research program of NINDS/NIH (protocol #14 N-0002) and NYU Grossman School of Medicine (protocol s15-01323). All participants provided written informed consent.

Copyright

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.