BRAIN
VISUALS
Much of the mechanics and biology of vision in the human brain is well understood, but what does the way the brain processes visual information tell us about how our cerebrals are organized, and more importantly, why?
Biologically speaking, learning faces has been important to our survival, and in that regard we all do it similarly.
A face appears on a screen, it’s a horizontally spliced image of two well-known celebrities. Separately, these two would be undeniably recognizable to many. The top half of the face is of Taylor Swift, the bottom is of Katy Perry. Yet when these separate face halves are merged together, the face that we might have seen before or even, depending on fandom, thousands of times, now looks like a completely different face.
It’s a striking phenomenon that Olivia Cheung, assistant professor of psychology, says speaks to the heart of her research that explores the interaction between visual and conceptual knowledge. Almost all of us possess a part in our brains that is able to uniquely recognize thousands of faces – a task that Cheung says is remarkable considering how similar all faces are in as far as they have the same main components arranged in an identical configuration: e.g., two eyes above a nose and a mouth.
In particular, two sources of influences are at play and currently being researched by her lab.
The first question they seek to answer is that research has shown different neural and behavioral computations are used to process different categories (e.g., faces, animals, man-
made objects, words) that we see, but these differences are consistent among many of us, why is that the case?
As they continue to explore how the brain makes sense of visual information, Cheung and others in her field will begin to uncover the mysteries of the brain and learning.
An example is why are we all able to process faces in the same way, yet we all come from different cultural backgrounds speaking different languages, and with widely different life experiences.
Although there is a lot of nature involved, Cheung is also looking at the nurture part of it. An example of this neural malleability is found in scientific research findings in which people who have limited exposure to a certain human race find it difficult to tell apart individuals from that race. However, the more exposure people have with individuals of that race, either the same or different from their own race, the more they are able to discern. This is an indication that different brain networks, for example the face recognition network, are highly malleable and can change over time.
There is a debate on whether these critical brain processes, such as the face or word recognition networks, are exclusive to recognizing their intended functions or whether they are involved in specific computations that can be used for multiple categories. This leads to the second question that fascinates Cheung: Can these face-processing networks be trained to do something else?
“This is the nurture part coming in. How do we fine tune it, can we change it? We have the systems in place, everyone is born with the tendency of these networks to process these categories that are useful – we know that the face system does a very good job at processing faces and the word system is very good at processing words, but can they be used for different things,” she said.
Her research is looking into how different kinds of experiences can lead to specific kinds of changes in our brains. The lab has discovered that when humans gain experience and knowledge it often signifies a change in our behaviors and brains.
People on the autism spectrum, for example, are not interested in processing faces, so there is work being done by other researchers on whether they use those networks for other functions.
“Musical notation reading, for example, is a new skill that some of us learn. The brain doesn’t come up with a new network for it, but it might try to utilize its existing networks, such as the network for reading, for it” she said.
Cheung says that vision is likely the most important sense that many rely on to understand the world around us. As they continue to explore how the brain makes sense of visual information, Cheung and others in her field will begin to uncover the mysteries of the brain and learning.
Brain Visuals / Words: Naser Al Wasmi / Editor: Abigail Kelly
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