Puneeth N C, Arun S P
Centre for Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India.
Sci Rep. 2016 Aug 3;6:30808. doi: 10.1038/srep30808.
We take it for granted that objects continue to exist after being occluded. This knowledge - known as object permanence - is present even in childhood, but its neural basis is not fully understood. Here, we show that monkey inferior temporal (IT) neurons carry potential signals of object permanence even in animals that received no explicit behavioral training. We compared two conditions with identical visual stimulation: the same object emerged from behind an occluder as expected following its occlusion, or unexpectedly after occlusion of a different object. Some neurons produced a larger (surprise) signal when the object emerged unexpectedly, whereas other neurons produced a larger (match) signal when the object reappeared as expected. Neurons carrying match signals also reinstated selective delay period activity just before the object emerged. Thus, signals related to object permanence are present in IT neurons and may arise through an interplay of memory and match computations.
我们理所当然地认为物体在被遮挡后仍然存在。这种知识——即物体恒存——即使在儿童时期就已存在，但其神经基础尚未完全被理解。在这里，我们表明，即使在没有接受明确行为训练的动物中，猴子的颞下（IT）神经元也携带物体恒存的潜在信号。我们比较了两种具有相同视觉刺激的条件：同一个物体在被遮挡后如预期那样从遮挡物后面出现，或者在另一个物体被遮挡后意外出现。当物体意外出现时，一些神经元产生了更大的（惊讶）信号，而当物体如预期那样重新出现时，其他神经元产生了更大的（匹配）信号。携带匹配信号的神经元在物体出现之前也恢复了选择性延迟期活动。因此，与物体恒存相关的信号存在于IT神经元中，并且可能通过记忆和匹配计算的相互作用而产生。
