Viewer-centered object representation in the human visual system revealed by viewpoint aftereffects

  • Fang Fang
  • , Sheng He

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

149 Scopus citations

Abstract

Are there neurons representing specific views of objects in the human visual system? A visual selective adaptation method was used to address this question. After visual adaptation to an object viewed either 15 or 30 degrees from one side, when the same object was subsequently presented near the frontal view, the perceived viewing directions were biased in a direction opposite to that of the adapted viewpoint. This aftereffect can be obtained with spatially nonoverlapping adapting and test stimuli, and it depends on the global representation of the adapting stimuli. Viewpoint aftereffects were found within, but not across, categories of objects tested (faces, cars, wire-like objects). The magnitude of this aftereffect depends on the angular difference between the adapting and test viewing angles and grows with increasing duration of adaptation. These results support the existence of object-selective neurons tuned to specific viewing angles in the human visual system.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)793-800
Number of pages8
JournalNeuron
Volume45
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 3 2005

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We thank Thomas Carlson for helping us to generate some of the stimuli. We also thank Patty Costello, Patrick Cavanagh, Daniel Kersten, Don MacLeod, Scott Murray, Cheryl Olman, and three anonymous reviewers for their comments on an earlier draft of the paper. This research is supported in part by an award from the James S. McDonnell foundation and a National Institutes of Health Grant R01 EY015261-01. F.F. was also supported by the Eva O. Miller Fellowship and Graduate Research Partnership Program Award from the University of Minnesota.

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Viewer-centered object representation in the human visual system revealed by viewpoint aftereffects'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this