Neural Transformation of Object Information by Ventral Pathway Visual Cortex

Abstract

Object perception is a critical aspect of cognition, and is essential to understanding the world we inhabit. It is also one of the brain's most remarkable computational abilities, considering the enormously complex, variable mapping between retinal images and physical objects. Retinal images are transformed into mental representations of objects by the ventral pathway of visual cortex. The vast dimensionality of the retinal image is compressed into a compact representation of object part configurations. This explicit representation of configural structure may serve as the basis for recognition, evaluation, and physical interaction with objects.