Visual looming is a primitive for human emotion.

ABSTRACT: The neural computations for looming detection are strikingly similar across species. In mammals, information about approaching threats is conveyed from the retina to the midbrain superior colliculus, where approach variables are computed to enable defensive behavior. Although neuroscientific theories posit that midbrain representations contribute to emotion through connectivity with distributed brain systems, it remains unknown whether a computational system for looming detection can predict both defensive behavior and phenomenal experience in humans. Here, we show that a shallow convolutional neural network based on the Drosophila visual system predicts defensive blinking to looming objects in infants and superior colliculus responses to optical expansion in adults. Further, the ne

SUBMITTER: Thieu MK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11126809 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature