Talia Konkle

Harvard University

Exploring Object Representation: from low-level to high-level features

 

We can represent and distinguish thousands and thousands of objects, and we have detailed knowledge about them — what they are called, what they look like, how to interact with them, and where to find them in the world. In this talk, I will explore how a range of low- to high-level object properties are reflected in the neural responses to objects. Part 1 will compares how the feature spaces of action, context, function, and real-world size predict neural responses along the ventral visual stream. In Part 2, I will present some new data exploring where in the brain activations are similar between pictures of objects and their spoken names. Together, we’ll discuss what the results mean, as they raises a few surprising puzzles about the nature of neural responses along the ventral stream.