Objects are fundamental to scene understanding. Scenes are defined by embedded objects and how we interact with them. Paradoxically, scene processing in the brain is typically discussed in contrast to object processing. Using the BOLD5000 dataset (Chang et al., 2019), we examined whether objects within a scene predicted the neural representation of scenes, as measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging in humans. Stimuli included 1,179 unique scenes across 18 semantic categories. Object composition of scenes were compared across scene exemplars in different semantic scene categories, and separately, in exemplars of the same scene category. Neural representations in scene- and object-preferring brain regions were significantly related to which objects were in a scene, with the effect at times stronger in the scene-preferring regions. The object model accounted for more variance when comparing scenes within the same semantic category to scenes from different categories. Here, we demonstrate the function of scene-preferring regions includes the processing of objects. This suggests visual processing regions may be better characterized by the processes, which are engaged when interacting with the stimulus kind, such as processing groups of objects in scenes, or processing a single object in our foreground, rather than the stimulus kind itself.
How do multiple sources of information interact to form mental representations of object categories? It is commonly held that object categories reflect the integration of perceptual features and semantic/knowledge‐based features. To explore the relative contributions of these two sources of information, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to identify regions involved in the representation object categories with shared visual and/or semantic features.
Participants (
Somewhat surprisingly, within higher‐order visual processing regions—specifically lateral occipital cortex (LOC)—we did not obtain any difference in neural adaptation for shared visual versus semantic category membership. More broadly, both visual and semantic information affected a distributed network of independently identified category‐selective regions. Adaptation was seen a whole‐brain network of processing regions in response to visual similarity and semantic similarity; specifically, the angular gyrus (AnG) adapted to visual similarity and the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC) adapted to both visual and semantic similarity.
Our findings suggest that perceptual features help organize mental categories throughout the object processing hierarchy. Most notably, visual similarity also influenced adaptation in nonvisual brain regions (i.e., AnG and DMPFC). We conclude that category‐relevant visual features are maintained in higher‐order conceptual representations and visual information plays an important role in both the acquisition and neural representation of conceptual object categories.
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10459542
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Brain and Behavior
- Volume:
- 9
- Issue:
- 10
- ISSN:
- 2162-3279
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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