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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Oct 12, 2025

Visualization of Cortical Modules in Flattened Mammalian Cortices

Visualization of Cortical Modules in Flattened Mammalian Cortices

Published on: January 22, 2018

Skeletal representations of shape in the human visual cortex.

Vladislav Ayzenberg¹, Frederik S Kamps², Daniel D Dilks³

¹Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, USA.

Neuropsychologia

|November 21, 2021

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

The human visual system may represent object shapes using a skeletal structure. This skeletal model of shape similarity was found to be predictive in visual brain regions V3 and LO.

Keywords:

Lateral occipital cortex (LO)Medial axis Object recognition Perceptual organization V3 fMRI

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Visualization of Cortical Modules in Flattened Mammalian Cortices

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Three-Dimensional Shape Modeling and Analysis of Brain Structures

Three-Dimensional Shape Modeling and Analysis of Brain Structures

Published on: November 14, 2019

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Cognitive Science
Computer Vision

Background:

Object recognition relies heavily on shape perception.
The precise mechanisms of shape representation in the human visual system are not fully understood.
Skeletal structures are a potential model for representing object shapes.

Purpose of the Study:

To test the hypothesis that the visual system represents object shape via a skeletal structure.
To investigate the role of skeletal shape representations in visual brain regions V3 and LO.
To compare skeletal shape models with other visual similarity models.

Main Methods:

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to measure brain activity.
Representational similarity analysis (RSA) was employed to compare brain activity patterns with computational models.
Multiple models of visual similarity, including skeletal, Gabor-jet, GIST, HMAX, and AlexNet, were tested.

Main Results:

A skeletal similarity model significantly explained unique variance in the response profiles of visual regions V3 and LO.
The skeletal model remained predictive even when controlling for other visual feature models.
The skeletal model's predictive power was maintained across different surface forms, indicating robustness to contour variations.

Conclusions:

The findings support the hypothesis that the visual system utilizes skeletal structures for shape representation.
Visual regions V3 and LO appear to play a role in processing skeletal shape information.
Shape skeletons may be crucial for both perceptual organization and object recognition in human vision.