Graduate Program in Cognitive and Neural Systems, Department of Mathematics, Center for Adaptive Systems, Center for Computational Neuroscience and Neural Technology, Boston University Boston, MA, USA.
Front Integr Neurosci. 2014 Jun 17;8:43. doi: 10.3389/fnint.2014.00043. eCollection 2014.
The Where's Waldo problem concerns how individuals can rapidly learn to search a scene to detect, attend, recognize, and look at a valued target object in it. This article develops the ARTSCAN Search neural model to clarify how brain mechanisms across the What and Where cortical streams are coordinated to solve the Where's Waldo problem. The What stream learns positionally-invariant object representations, whereas the Where stream controls positionally-selective spatial and action representations. The model overcomes deficiencies of these computationally complementary properties through What and Where stream interactions. Where stream processes of spatial attention and predictive eye movement control modulate What stream processes whereby multiple view- and positionally-specific object categories are learned and associatively linked to view- and positionally-invariant object categories through bottom-up and attentive top-down interactions. Gain fields control the coordinate transformations that enable spatial attention and predictive eye movements to carry out this role. What stream cognitive-emotional learning processes enable the focusing of motivated attention upon the invariant object categories of desired objects. What stream cognitive names or motivational drives can prime a view- and positionally-invariant object category of a desired target object. A volitional signal can convert these primes into top-down activations that can, in turn, prime What stream view- and positionally-specific categories. When it also receives bottom-up activation from a target, such a positionally-specific category can cause an attentional shift in the Where stream to the positional representation of the target, and an eye movement can then be elicited to foveate it. These processes describe interactions among brain regions that include visual cortex, parietal cortex, inferotemporal cortex, prefrontal cortex (PFC), amygdala, basal ganglia (BG), and superior colliculus (SC).
“Where's Waldo”问题涉及个体如何快速学习搜索场景以检测、关注、识别和查看其中有价值的目标对象。本文开发了 ARTSCAN Search 神经模型，以阐明大脑在 What 和 Where 皮质流中是如何协调解决“Where's Waldo”问题的。What 流学习位置不变的物体表示，而 Where 流控制位置选择的空间和动作表示。该模型通过 What 和 Where 流之间的相互作用克服了这些计算上互补特性的缺陷。Where 流的空间注意和预测性眼球运动控制过程调节 What 流过程，通过自下而上和注意自上而下的相互作用，多个视图和位置特定的物体类别被学习并与视图和位置不变的物体类别相关联。增益场控制坐标变换，使空间注意和预测性眼球运动能够发挥作用。What 流认知情感学习过程使注意力能够集中在期望对象的不变物体类别上。What 流认知名称或动机驱动可以为期望目标对象的不变物体类别提供启动。意志信号可以将这些启动转换为自上而下的激活，进而启动 What 流的视图和位置特定类别。当它还从目标接收自下而上的激活时，这样的位置特定类别可以引起 Where 流中目标位置表示的注意力转移，然后可以引发眼球运动将其注视。这些过程描述了包括视觉皮层、顶叶皮层、下颞叶皮层、前额叶皮层 (PFC)、杏仁核、基底神经节 (BG) 和上丘在内的大脑区域之间的相互作用。
