title: Behavioral demand modulates object category representation in the inferior temporal cortex.
abstract: Visual object categorization is a critical task in our daily life. Many studies have explored category representation in the inferior temporal (IT) cortex at the level of single neurons and population. However, it is not clear how behavioral demands modulate this category representation. Here, we recorded from the IT single neurons in monkeys performing two different tasks with identical visual stimuli: passive fixation and body/object categorization. We found that category selectivity of the IT neurons was improved in the categorization compared with the passive task where reward was not contingent on image category. The category improvement was the result of larger rate enhancement for the preferred category and smaller response variability for both preferred and nonpreferred categories. These specific modulations in the responses of IT category neurons enhanced signal-to-noise ratio of the neural responses to discriminate better between the preferred and nonpreferred categories. Our results provide new insight into the adaptable category representation in the IT cortex, which depends on behavioral demands.
authors: School of Cognitive Sciences, Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences (IPM), Tehran, Iran; Research Center for Brain and Cognition, School of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran; and Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Department of Neurobiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California.
authors: Nazli
authors: N
authors: Emadi
authors: School of Cognitive Sciences, Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences (IPM), Tehran, Iran; Research Center for Brain and Cognition, School of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran; and esteky@ipm.ir.
authors: Hossein
authors: H
authors: Esteky
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials; D000818:Animals; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D005403:Fixation, Ocular / Q000502:physiology; D008251:Macaca; D008297:Male; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012201:Reward; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D060388:Support Vector Machine; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: behavioral demand; inferior temporal cortex; object category; visual perception