Biology subjects

Sheinberg, D.

Publications and source records attributed to Sheinberg, D..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2024

Monkeys engage in visual simulation to solve complex problems

Visual simulation -- i.e., using internal reconstructions of the world to experience potential future versions of events that are not currently happening -- is among the most sophisticated capacities of the human mind. But is this ability in fact uniquely human? To answer this question, we tested monkeys on a series of experiments involving the Planko game, which we have previously used to evoke visual simulation in human participants. We found that monkeys were able to successfully play the game using a simulation strategy, predicting the trajectory of a ball through a field of planks while demonstrating a level of accuracy and behavioral signatures comparable to humans. Computational analyses further revealed that the monkeys strategy while playing Planko aligned with a recurrent neural network (RNN) that approached the task using a spontaneously learned simulation strategy. Finally, we carried out awake functional magnetic resonance imaging while monkeys played Planko. We found activity in motion-sensitive regions of the monkey brain during hypothesized simulation periods, even without any perceived visual motion cues. This neural result closely mirrors previous findings from human research, suggesting a shared mechanism of visual simulation across species. In all, these findings challenge traditional views of animal cognition, proposing that nonhuman primates possess a complex cognitive landscape, capable of invoking imaginative and predictive mental experiences to solve complex everyday problems.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2023

Learning of the same task subserved by substantially different mechanisms between patients with Body Dysmorphic Disorder and healthy individuals

It is generally believed that learning of a perceptual task involving low-level neuronal mechanisms is similar between individuals. However, it is unclear whether this assumption also applies to individuals with psychiatric disorders that are known to have altered brain activation during visual processing. We investigated this question in patients with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), a psychiatric disorder characterized by distressing or impairing preoccupation with nonexistent or slight defects in ones physical appearance, and in healthy controls. Participants completed six training sessions on separate days on a visual detection task for human faces with low spatial frequency (LSF) components. Brain activation during task performance was measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) on separate days prior to and after training. The behavioral results showed that both groups of participants improved on the visual detection task to a similar extent through training. Despite this similarity in behavioral improvement, neuronal changes in the Fusiform Face Area (FFA), a core cortical region involved in face processing, with training were substantially different between groups. First, activation in the right FFA for LSF faces relative to High Spatial Frequency (HSF) faces that were used as an untrained control increased after training in BDD patients but decreased in controls. Second, resting state functional connectivity between left and right FFAs decreased after training in BDD patients but increased in controls. Contrary to the assumption that learning of a perceptual task is subserved by the same neuronal mechanisms across individuals, our results indicate that the neuronal mechanisms involved in learning of a face detection task differ fundamentally between patients with BDD and healthy individuals. The involvement of different neuronal mechanisms for learning of even simple perceptual tasks in patients with BDD might reflect the brains adaptations to altered functions imposed by the psychiatric disorder.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2022

Neurons in inferior temporal cortex are sensitive to motion trajectory during degraded object recognition

Our brains continuously acquire sensory information and make judgments even when visual information is limited. In some circumstances, an ambiguous object can be recognized from how it moves, such as an animal hopping or a plane flying overhead. Yet it remains unclear how movement is processed by brain areas involved in visual object recognition. Here we investigate whether inferior temporal cortex, an area traditionally known for shape processing, has access to motion information during degraded shape recognition. We developed a matching task that required monkeys to recognize moving shapes with variable levels of shape degradation. Neural recordings in area IT showed that, surprisingly, some IT neurons preferred blurry shapes over clear ones. Further, many of the neurons exhibited motion sensitivity at different times during the presentation of the blurry target. Population decoding analyses showed that motion pattern could be decoded from IT neuron pseudo-populations. Contrary to previous findings, these results suggest that neurons in IT can integrate visual motion and shape information, particularly when shape information is degraded, in a way that has been previously overlooked. Our results highlight the importance of using challenging multi-feature recognition tasks to understand the role of area IT in naturalistic visual object recognition. (Word count: 199)

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2021

A Role for Visual Areas in Physics Simulations

To engage with the world, we must regularly make predictions about the outcomes of physical scenes. How do we make these predictions? Recent evidence points to simulation - the idea that we can introspectively manipulate rich, mental models of the world - as one possible explanation for how such predictions are accomplished. While theories based on simulation are supported by computational models, neuroscientific evidence for simulation is lacking and many important questions remain. For instance, do simulations simply entail a series of abstract computations? Or are they supported by sensory representations of the objects that comprise the scene being simulated? We posit the latter and suggest that the process of simulating a sequence of physical interactions is likely to evoke an imagery-like envisioning of those interactions. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we demonstrate that when participants predict how a ball will fall through an obstacle-filled display, motion-sensitive brain regions are activated. We further demonstrate that this activity, which occurs even though no motion is being sensed, resembles activity patterns that arise while participants perceive the balls motion. This finding suggests that the process of simulating the balls movement is accompanied by a sensory representation of this movement. These data thus demonstrate that mental simulations recreate sensory depictions of how a physical scene is likely to unfold.

neuroscience↗