First impressions: Computer model behaves like humans on visual categorization task

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Both humans and a computer model developed in Poggioacutes lab correctly categorize these images when they are presented for just 50 milliseconds followed by a mask that shuts down cognitive feedback in the human subjects. These results support the v ...

Both humans and a computer model developed in Poggio's lab correctly categorize these images when they are presented for just 50 milliseconds followed by a mask that shuts down cognitive feedback in the human subjects. These results support the view that rapid or immediate object recognition occurs in one feed-forward sweep through the ventral stream of the visual cortex. Credit: Images courtesy Thomas Serre, McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT

Computers can usually out-compute the human brain, but there are some tasks, such as visual object recognition, that the brain performs easily yet are very challenging for computers. The brain has a much more sophisticated and swift visual processing system than even the most advanced artificial vision system, giving us an uncanny ability to extract salient information after just a glimpse that is presumably too fleeting for conscious thought. To explore this phenomenon, neuroscientists have long used rapid categorization tasks, in which subjects indicate whether an object from a specific class (such as an animal) is present or not in the image.

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All News summaries for April 02, 2007