Individual Neuronal Feature Extraction and Representations (INFER): Emulating the perceptual system of individuals with extraordinary visual skills by combining deep neural networks and visual psychophysics

Each and every one of us has distinct visual representations of persons, familiar objects and scenes. We all acquire and form these visual representations in our brains through our unique experiences, but how exactly do we acquire these representations? What specific visual information supports the conceptual representation of objects in our brains and what part of this information is necessary for recognition? Cognitive neuroscience studies have so far focussed on investigating the commonalities between individuals in the human visual system as though each individual share the same visual face or object templates. Yet, scientists are beginning to discover that even common representations such as facial emotion expressions of fear or joy show clear discrepancies according to culture (ex. Caucasian and Easterners), neurodevelopmental disorders (ex. schizophrenia, autism), or even according to individual variations of perceptual ability between neurotypical individuals. We know very little about how the brain of individuals that varies on these attributes enables these discrepancies in visual representations […]

Faculty Supervisor:

Frédéric Gosselin

Student:

Partner:

University of Birmingham

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Life Sciences (not health); Health and Related Sciences & Technology; Public Service, Policy, and Governance

University:

Université de Montréal

Program: