Uploaded October 2021 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Will Xiao, Harvard University
Abstract: How does the brain support our ability to see? Studies of primate vision have typically focused on controlled viewing conditions exemplified by the rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) task, where the subject must hold fixation while images are flashed briefly in randomized order. In contrast, during natural viewing, eyes move frequently, guided by subject-initiated saccades, resulting in a sequence of related sensory input. Thus, natural viewing departs from traditional assumptions of independent and unpredictable visual inputs, leaving it an open question how visual neurons respond in real life.
We recorded responses of interior temporal (IT) cortex neurons in macaque monkeys freely viewing natural images. We first examined responses of face-selective neurons and found that face neurons responded according to whether individual fixations were near a face, meticulously distinguishing single fixations. Second, we considered repeated fixations on very close-by locations, termed ‘return fixations.’ Responses were more similar during return fixations, and again distinguished individual fixations. Third, computation models could partially explain neuronal responses from an image crop centered on each fixation.
These results shed light on how the IT cortex does (and does not) contribute to our daily visual percept: a stable world despite frequent saccades.
Will Xiao, Harvard University
Abstract: How does the brain support our ability to see? Studies of primate vision have typically focused on controlled viewing conditions exemplified by the rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) task, where the subject must hold fixation while images are flashed briefly in randomized order. In contrast, during natural viewing, eyes move frequently, guided by subject-initiated saccades, resulting in a sequence of related sensory input. Thus, natural viewing departs from traditional assumptions of independent and unpredictable visual inputs, leaving it an open question how visual neurons respond in real life.
We recorded responses of interior temporal (IT) cortex neurons in macaque monkeys freely viewing natural images. We first examined responses of face-selective neurons and found that face neurons responded according to whether individual fixations were near a face, meticulously distinguishing single fixations. Second, we considered repeated fixations on very close-by locations, termed ‘return fixations.’ Responses were more similar during return fixations, and again distinguished individual fixations. Third, computation models could partially explain neuronal responses from an image crop centered on each fixation.
These results shed light on how the IT cortex does (and does not) contribute to our daily visual percept: a stable world despite frequent saccades.
