“大范围优先”对象形成的神经关联：前颞叶

Neural correlation of"global-first"object formation:anterior temporal lobe

知觉对象是什么?这事看起来很简单,却是认知科学许多领域中最核心的问题,目前为止还没有公认的解答。"大范围优先"的拓扑学方法把知觉对象的定义严格地联系到拓扑变换下的不变量。知觉对象的直观概念—形状改变时其整体一致性得以保持—可以精确地被拓扑不变量,如连接组分和洞,所刻画。知觉对象的拓扑学定义已经被大量的行为学实验所验证。这些实验一致表明,虽然对象的一致性能够在非拓扑变换下得以保持,却会被拓扑变换所破坏,从而一个新的对象被感知到。特别是进一步的功能磁共振成像实验揭示,前颞页区参与拓扑知觉和知觉对象的形成,而这一脑区本来是形式视觉通路的终点。行为学上"大范围优先"的结果与视觉通路神经解剖学结果的悖逆,提示我们应该注意对象表征形成的问题和更广泛的意义上,知觉到底在何处发生的基本问题。

What is a perceptual object？ This question seems to be straightforward yet its answer has become one of the most central and also controversial issues in many areas of cognitive sciences. The ＂global-first＂ topological approach ties a formal definition of perceptual objects to invariance over topological transformation, and the core intuitive notion of a perceptual object - the holistic identity preserved over shape-changing transformations - may be precisely characterized as topological invariants, such as connected components and holes. The topological definition of objects has been verified by a fairly large set of behavioral experiments, which consistently demonstrated that while object identity can survive various non-topological changes, the topological change disturbs its object continuity, being perceived as an emergence of a new object. Particularly, further fMRI experiments revealed the involvement of anterior temporal lobe, a late destination of the visual form pathway, in the topological perception as well as the formation of perceptual objects. This contrast of global-first in behavior and late destination in neuroanatomy is likely to raise far-reaching issues regarding the formation of object representations in particular, and the fundamental question of ＂where to begin＂ in general.