A cortical mechanism for triggering top-down facilitation in visual object recognition

Bar, Moshe

doi:10.1162/089892903321662976

Cited by 900Visual perception and processing mechanismsVisual Attention and Saliency DetectionFace Recognition and Perception

A cortical mechanism for triggering top-down facilitation in visual object recognition

Bar, Moshe·2003·Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

DOI 10.1162/089892903321662976

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Abstract

The majority of the research related to visual recognition has so far focused on bottom-up analysis, where the input is processed in a cascade of cortical regions that analyze increasingly complex information. Gradually more studies emphasize the role of top-down facilitation in cortical analysis, but it remains something of a mystery how such processing would be initiated. After all, top-down facilitation implies that high-level information is activated earlier than some relevant lower-level information. Building on previous studies, I propose a specific mechanism for the activation of top-down facilitation during visual object recognition. The gist of this hypothesis is that a partially analyzed version of the input image (i.e., a blurred image) is projected rapidly from early visual areas directly to the prefrontal cortex (PFC). This coarse representation activates in the PFC expectations about the most likely interpretations of the input image, which are then back-projected as an “initial guess” to the temporal cortex to be integrated with the bottom-up analysis. The top-down process facilitates recognition by substantially limiting the number of object representations that need to be considered. Furthermore, such a rapid mechanism may provide critical information when a quick response is necessary.

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A fundamental role of the M system/dorsal stream might be to produce a low-resolution template of the visual scene that influences perceptual processes in ventral occipito-temporal cortex by allowing P pathway fine-detailed input to be used more effectively.
“A fundamental role of the M system/dorsal stream might be to produce a low-resolution template of the visual scene that influences perceptual processes, such as categorization of natural images, object recognition, and perceptual grouping in the ventral occipito-temporal cortex, by allowing P pathway fine-detailed input to be used more effectively (3,75–80).”
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“Another example is gist perception in object recognition— where the ‘gist’ of the scene engages past experience to generate the most likely prediction about the object’s identity (Bar 2003; Oliva and Torralba 2006).”
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Authors: Bar, M.
Affiliations: Harvard University (US)
Corresponding author: Bar, Moshe
ORCID: Bar, Moshe
Venue: Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
Publisher: MIT Press
Published: 2003-05
Volume: 15
Issue: 4
Pages: 600-609
ISSN: 0898-929X (ISSN-L)
1530-8898
DOI: 10.1162/089892903321662976
OpenAlex: W2099679614
Semantic Scholar: 4190ef4eb4f36fd5a39398713adeff99102b06cd
Cited by: 900
References: 116
Citations by year: 2026: 22 · 2025: 26 · 2024: 40 · 2023: 31 · 2022: 33 · 2021: 42 · 2020: 49 · 2019: 34 · 2018: 39 · 2017: 48 · 2016: 43 · 2015: 69 · 2014: 58 · 2013: 51 · 2012: 43
FWCI: 2.82
Type: journal article
Language: en
Open access: closed
Locations: Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience (publishedVersion)
PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders: National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (R01 NS44319-01, R01NS044319)
Topics: Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition › Visual Attention and Saliency Detection
Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
Keywords: visual object recognition, prefrontal cortex, bottom-up processing, early visual areas, image blurring, top-down expectations, initial guess, temporal cortex
MeSH terms: Humans, Photic Stimulation, Prefrontal Cortex, Recognition, Psychology

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A cortical mechanism for triggering top-down facilitation in visual object recognition

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