Wakayo Yamashita

Prior experience of rotation is not required for recognizing objects seen from different angles

An object viewed from different angles can be recognized and distinguished from similar distractors after the viewer has had experience watching it rotate. It has been assumed that as an observer watches the rotation, separate representations of individual views become associated with one another. However, we show here that once monkeys learned to discriminate individual views of objects, they were able to recognize objects across rotations up to 60°, even though there had been no opportunity to learn the association between different views. Our results suggest that object recognition across small or medium changes in viewing angle depends on features common to similar views of objects.NOTE: In the version of this article initially published online, there was an error in the page numbers of the web PDF. The error has been corrected in the PDF version of the article.

View-invariant object recognition ability develops after discrimination, not mere exposure, at several viewing angles.

One usually fails to recognize an unfamiliar object across changes in viewing angle when it has to be discriminated from similar distractor objects. Previous work has demonstrated that after long‐term experience in discriminating among a set of objects seen from the same viewing angle, immediate recognition of the objects across 30–60° changes in viewing angle becomes possible. The capability for view‐invariant object recognition should develop during the within‐viewing‐angle discrimination, which includes two kinds of experience: seeing individual views and discriminating among the objects. The aim of the present study was to determine the relative contribution of each factor to the development of view‐invariant object recognition capability. Monkeys were first extensively trained in a task that required view‐invariant object recognition (Object task) with several sets of objects. The animals were then exposed to a new set of objects over 26 days in one of two preparatory tasks: one in which each object view was seen individually, and a second that required discrimination among the objects at each of four viewing angles. After the preparatory period, we measured the monkeys’ ability to recognize the objects across changes in viewing angle, by introducing the object set to the Object task. Results indicated significant view‐invariant recognition after the second but not first preparatory task. These results suggest that discrimination of objects from distractors at each of several viewing angles is required for the development of view‐invariant recognition of the objects when the distractors are similar to the objects.

The effect of gaze direction on three-dimensional face recognition in infant brain activity.

In three-dimensional face recognition studies, it is well known that viewing rotating faces enhance face recognition. For infants, our previous study indicated that 8-month-old infants showed recognition of three-dimensional rotating faces with a direct gaze, and they did not learn with an averted gaze. This suggests that gaze direction may affect three-dimensional face recognition in infants. In this experiment, we used near-infrared spectroscopy to measure infants’ hemodynamic responses to averted gaze and direct gaze. We hypothesized that infants would show different neural activity for averted and direct gazes. The responses were compared with the baseline activation during the presentation of non-face objects. We found that the concentration of oxyhemoglobin increased in the temporal cortex on both sides only during the presentation of averted gaze compared with that of the baseline period. This is the first study to show that infants’ brain activity in three-dimensional face processing is different between averted gaze and direct gaze.

The effect of gaze direction on three-dimensional face recognition in infants.

Eye gaze is an important tool for social contact. In this study, we investigated whether direct gaze facilitates the recognition of three-dimensional face images in infants. We presented artificially produced face images in rotation to 6-8 month-old infants. The eye gaze of the face images was either direct or averted. Sixty-one sequential images of each face were created by rotating the vertical axis of the face from frontal view to ± 30°. The recognition performances of the infants were then compared between faces with direct gaze and faces with averted gaze. Infants showed evidence that they were able to discriminate the novel from familiarized face by 8 months of age and only when gaze is direct. These results suggest that gaze direction may affect three-dimensional face recognition in infants.

Crossmodal association of auditory and visual material properties in infants

The human perceptual system enables us to extract visual properties of an object’s material from auditory information. In monkeys, the neural basis underlying such multisensory association develops through experience of exposure to a material; material information could be processed in the posterior inferior temporal cortex, progressively from the high-order visual areas. In humans, however, the development of this neural representation remains poorly understood. Here, we demonstrated for the first time the presence of a mapping of the auditory material property with visual material (“Metal” and “Wood”) in the right temporal region in preverbal 4- to 8-month-old infants, using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). Furthermore, we found that infants acquired the audio-visual mapping for a property of the “Metal” material later than for the “Wood” material, since infants form the visual property of “Metal” material after approximately 6 months of age. These findings indicate that multisensory processing of material information induces the activation of brain areas related to sound symbolism. Our findings also indicate that the material’s familiarity might facilitate the development of multisensory processing during the first year of life.

Subjective time expansion with increased stimulation of intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells

Intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs) contain photoreceptors that are especially sensitive to blue light. Nevertheless, how blue light and ipRGCs affect time perception remains unsolved. We used the oddball paradigm and manipulated the background light to examine whether and how blue light and ipRGCs affect perceived duration. In the oddball paradigm, participants were asked to judge the duration of the target (oddball), compared to that of the standard, with a two alternative-forced-choice procedure. When the background light was controlled to be either blue or red in Experiment 1, results showed that blue light led to longer subjective duration compared to red light. Experiment 2 further clarified the contribution of the ipRGCs. A set of multi-primary projector system that could manipulate the ipRGC stimulation were used, while the color and luminance of the background lights were kept constant throughout. Results showed that increased stimulation of ipRGCs under metameric background expanded subjective time. These results suggest that ipRGC stimulation increases arousal/attention so as to expand subjective duration.