Cognitive Neuroscience: Vision, Visual Recognition, AI Models, Attention and Action

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms and concepts from visual processing, object recognition, AI vision models, spatial reference frames, attention, and the motor action system.

Sensation

The body's response to stimuli.

Perception

The body's way of organizing and processing stimuli.

Gestalt principles

Rules describing how the brain groups together smaller objects to make a bigger picture based on connectedness, good continuation, and similarity.

Dorsal pathway

Visual pathway located in the brain that is responsible for vision for action.

Ventral pathway

The 'what' visual pathway in the brain responsible for visual processing.

Lateral pathway

Visual pathway in the brain responsible for social perception.

Hierarchical organization (Vision)

Structure in which simpler features are combined to make more complex ones from lower to higher visual areas, providing context for subsequent areas in the pathway.

Retinotopy

The structural arrangement where each neuron in primary visual areas V1-V4 corresponds to a specific point on the eyeball.

Receptive field

The area that a group of neurons respond to at a particular point in space, defined by a preferred size and feature.

Tuning curve

A receptive field property where neuronal response decreases as a stimulus moves further away from the preferred receptive field.

Occipital cortex

Early hierarchical stage of visual recognition responsible for processing lines and simple patterns.

Posterior IT

Hierarchical stage of visual recognition in the ventral pathway responsible for processing complex patterns and shapes.

Anterior IT

Hierarchical stage of visual recognition in the ventral pathway responsible for processing real world categories and concepts.

Object agnosia

A condition caused by damage to the posterior IT where patients cannot recognize even simple objects.

Associative agnosia

A condition caused by damage to the anterior IT where patients are fine with recognizing objects but cannot perform the complex function of naming them.

Feedforward processing

Bottom-up sensory processing.

Feedback processing

Top-down processing that flows from higher to lower visual areas to help provide context.

Supervised learning

An AI learning objective where the model learns through human feedback.

Unsupervised learning

An AI learning objective where the model teaches itself by discovering patterns within training data.

Egocentric spatial reference frame

Spatial representation frame where location is defined relative to your own body.

Allocentric spatial reference frame

Spatial representation frame where location is defined relative to other objects in the environment.

Object centric spatial reference frame

Spatial representation frame where location is defined relative to other parts within the same object.

Exogenous attention

Shifts of attention caused by an outside stimulus through a bottom-up mechanism.

Endogenous attention

Voluntary shifts of attention that are top-down and driven by the mind.

Superior parietal cortex

Component of the action system that uses visual information and egocentric location info to coordinate reaching.

Inferior parietal cortex

Component of the action system that uses visual information to shape the hand to grasp properly and sends grasp information to S1.

S1 (Somatosensory area 1)

Brain area that receives information from the body and feels touch.

M1 (Motor area 1)

Brain area that sends motor signals to the body and executes movement.

Cortical magnification

Organizational feature found in M1 and S1 where certain body parts are represented by larger portions of the cortex than others.