Predictions enable top-down pattern separation in the macaque face-processing hierarchy.

ABSTRACT: Distinguishing faces requires well distinguishable neural activity patterns. Contextual information may separate neural representations, leading to enhanced identity recognition. Here, we use functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate how predictions derived from contextual information affect the separability of neural activity patterns in the macaque face-processing system, a 3-level processing hierarchy in ventral visual cortex. We find that in the presence of predictions, early stages of this hierarchy exhibit well separable and high-dimensional neural geometries resembling those at the top of the hierarchy. This is accompanied by a systematic shift of tuning properties from higher to lower areas, endowing lower areas with higher-order, invariant representations instead of the

SUBMITTER: Nigam T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11339276 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature