Dynamics of Neuronal Responses in the Inferotemporal Cortex Associated with 3D Object Recognition Learning

Abstract

Discrimination of objects at the same viewing angles develops view-invariant object recognition in some extent. To reveal the underlying neuronal mechanism, we investigated the activities of the inferotemporal cell populations responding to object images with different prior experiences. With different object sets, the monkeys were trained beforehand with the Object task in which view-invariant object recognition across similar objects was required, and the Image task in which only the discrimination at the same viewing angles was required. We found, in the level of cell population, that the responses to the images with the prior experience of the Image task were similar to those to the images with the prior experience of the Object task. The highest level in response similarity was found 260 ms after the stimulus onset. The results suggest that the view-invariant neuronal representations developed through the experience of the object discrimination at the same viewing angles.