Bertamini Marco, Silvanto Juha, Norcia Anthony M, Makin Alexis D J, Wagemans Johan
Department of Psychological Science, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom.
Department of Psychology, University of Westminster, London, United Kingdom.
Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2018 Mar 31. doi: 10.1111/nyas.13667.
Symmetry is an important and prominent feature of the visual world. It has been studied as a basis for image segmentation and perceptual organization, but it also plays a role in higher level processes, such as face and object perception. Over the past decade, there has been progress in the study of the neural mechanisms of symmetry perception in humans and other animals. There is extended activity in the ventral stream, including the lateral occipital complex (LOC) and VO1; this activity starts in V3 and it occurs independently of the task (automatic response). Additionally, when the task requires processing of symmetry, the activation may emerge for objects that are symmetrical, even though they do not project a symmetrical image. There is also some evidence of hemispheric lateralization, especially for the LOC. We review the studies on the cortical basis of visual symmetry processing and its links to encoding of other aspects of the visual world, such as faces and objects.
对称性是视觉世界中一个重要且显著的特征。它已被作为图像分割和知觉组织的基础进行研究，但它在更高层次的过程中也发挥着作用，比如面部和物体感知。在过去十年里，人类和其他动物对称性感知的神经机制研究取得了进展。腹侧流存在广泛活动，包括外侧枕叶复合体（LOC）和VO1；这种活动始于V3，且独立于任务（自动反应）而发生。此外，当任务需要处理对称性时，即使物体没有投射出对称图像，对称物体也可能出现激活。也有一些半球侧化的证据，尤其是对于LOC。我们回顾了关于视觉对称性处理的皮层基础及其与视觉世界其他方面（如面部和物体）编码之间联系的研究。
