Neural and behavioral signatures of the multidimensionality of manipulable object processing

Almeida, J., Fracasso, A. , Kristensen, S., Valério, D., Bergström, F., Chakravarthi, R., Tal, Z. and Walbrin, J. (2023) Neural and behavioral signatures of the multidimensionality of manipulable object processing. Communications Biology, 6(1), 940. (doi: 10.1038/s42003-023-05323-x) (PMID:37709924) (PMCID:PMC10502059)

Abstract

Understanding how we recognize objects requires unravelling the variables that govern the way we think about objects and the neural organization of object representations. A tenable hypothesis is that the organization of object knowledge follows key object-related dimensions. Here, we explored, behaviorally and neurally, the multidimensionality of object processing. We focused on within-domain object information as a proxy for the decisions we typically engage in our daily lives – e.g., identifying a hammer in the context of other tools. We extracted object-related dimensions from subjective human judgments on a set of manipulable objects. We show that the extracted dimensions are cognitively interpretable and relevant – i.e., participants are able to consistently label them, and these dimensions can guide object categorization; and are important for the neural organization of knowledge – i.e., they predict neural signals elicited by manipulable objects. This shows that multidimensionality is a hallmark of the organization of manipulable object knowledge.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: This work was supported by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme Starting Grant number 802553; “ContentMAP” to J.A.; A.F. is supported by a grant from the Biotechnology and Biology research council (BBSRC, grant number: BB/S006605/1) and the Bial Foundation, Bial Foundation Grants Programme Grant ID: A-29315, number: 203/2020, grant edition: G-15516. S.K. is supported by a Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) Doctoral Grant SFRH/BD/145218/2019. DV is supported by a FCT Doctoral Grant SFRH/BD/137737/2018. F.B. is supported by a FCT Individual grant CEECIND/03661/2017. J.W. is supported by a FCT Individual grant CEECIND/03185/2021.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Fracasso, Dr Alessio

Creator Roles

Fracasso, A.: Formal analysis, Writing – review and editing

• Authors: Almeida, J., Fracasso, A., Kristensen, S., Valério, D., Bergström, F., Chakravarthi, R., Tal, Z., and Walbrin, J.
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Psychology & Neuroscience
• Journal Name: Communications Biology
• Publisher: Nature Research
• ISSN: 2399-3642
• ISSN (Online): 2399-3642
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2023 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Communications Biology 6:940
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons licence

Project Code	Award No	Project Name	Principal Investigator	Funder's Name	Funder Ref	Lead Dept
303685		Stable perception of external stimuli over time: oculo-motor and visual processing mechanisms	Alessio Fracasso	Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)	BB/S006605/1	SPN - Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging (CCNi)