Potential downside of high initial visual acuity.
Open accessAbstract
Children who are treated for congenital cataracts later exhibit impairments in configural face analysis. This has been explained in terms of a critical period for the acquisition of normal face processing. Here, we consider a more parsimonious account according to which deficits in configural analysis result from the abnormally high initial retinal acuity that children treated for cataracts experience, relative to typical newborns. According to this proposal, the initial period of low retinal acuity characteristic of normal visual development induces extended spatial processing in the cortex that is important for configural face judgments. As a computational test of this hypothesis, we examined the effects of training with high-resolution or blurred images, and staged combinations, on the receptive fields and performance of a convolutional neural network. The results show that commencing training with blurred images creates receptive fields that integrate information across larger image areas and leads to improved performance and better generalization across a range of resolutions. These findings offer an explanation for the observed face recognition impairments after late treatment of congenital blindness, suggest an adaptive function for the acuity trajectory in normal development, and provide a scheme for improving the performance of computational face recognition systems.
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Poorly resolved early vision is adaptive because it permits a cognitive transition in visual feature categorization from general to specific.
“This is considered adaptive because it permits a cognitive transition in the way visual features are categorized, from the general to the specific (Vogelsang et al., 2018).”
From The function(s) of consciousness revisited: insights from a modular/constitutive model using vision as a test case (2026) · cites this paper as Vogelsang et al., 2018
The Significance section (page unavailable) proposes that initially poor acuity may be adaptive and reports that training first on blurred images improves classification across resolutions. It does not establish a cognitive transition in visual feature categorization from general to specific; its account concerns spatial integration and a progression from low to high acuity. (LLM, conf=0.83)
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“This is considered adaptive because it permits a cognitive transition in the way visual features are categorized, from the general to the specific (Vogelsang et al., 2018).”
- Authors
- Vogelsang, L., Gilad-Gutnick, S., Ehrenberg, E., Yonas, A., Diamond, S., Held, R., & Sinha, P.
- Affiliations
- University of Zurich (CH)
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139;
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US)
- Arizona State University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Sinha, Pawan
- Venue
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2018-10-15
- Volume
- 115
- Issue
- 44
- Pages
- 11333-11338
- ISSN
- 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
- 1091-6490
- PMC
- PMC6217435
- OpenAlex
- W2897222461
- Cited by
- 130
- References
- 78
- Citations by year
- 2026: 13 · 2025: 20 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 37 · 2019: 7
- FWCI
- 8.18
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DSpace@MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Funders
- HHS | NIH | National Eye Institute (EYR01020517)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition › Face recognition and analysis
- Keywords
- congenital cataract, face processing, visual development, critical period, congenital blindness, receptive fields, convolutional neural networks, face recognition (cognition)
- MeSH terms
- Facial Recognition, Blindness, Cataract, Cerebral Cortex, Humans, Pattern Recognition, Visual, Photic Stimulation, Visual Acuity, Spatial Processing
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