Brain regions and Object Identification

Professor Earl Miller explains that the visual cortex, inferior temporal cortex, and prefrontal cortex perform distinct functions in object identification.

Well in identifying objects, one important area seems to be virtually the entire visual cortex, the posterior cortex of your brain is all important. If you lesion primary visual cortex, you're blind. But if you want to ask what brain areas are involved in recognizing objects per se, that really high level process of saying 'this is a dog,' 'that's a cat,' or 'this is a whatever,' it seems to be largely the inferior temporal cortex which is the final stage in this cortical visual pathway that analyzes color, shape, and texture, the kinds of things needed to recognize the objects. Depending on whether it's recognition of an object or a learned category, the prefrontal cortex may be involved.

object, identification, recognition, primary, visual, cortex, inferior, temporal, cortex, prefrontal, cortex, brain, earl, miller,

Related Content

1192. Prefrontal Cortex and Recognition

Professor Earl Miller describes research that shows objects are recognized using higher brain regions, specifically the prefrontal cortex.

  • ID: 1192
  • Source: G2C

1191. Neurons for Recognition

Professor Earl Miller explains that neurons in the prefrontal cortex respond to recognize very specific categories of object such as 'dog' or 'cat'.

  • ID: 1191
  • Source: G2C

2113. Occipital Lobe

The occipital cortex is the primary visual area of the brain. It has different groups of neurons that separately encode color, orientation, and motion information.

  • ID: 2113
  • Source: G2C

2238. Perception

A overview of perception-related content on Genes to Cognition Online.

  • ID: 2238
  • Source: G2C

2119. Perirhinal Cortex

The perirhinal cortex plays an important role in object recognition and in storing information (memories) about objects. It is highly connected to other brain structures.

  • ID: 2119
  • Source: G2C

1244. Temporal Lobe

The temporal lobes contain a large number of substructures, whose functions include perception, face recognition, object recognition, memory, language, and emotion.

  • ID: 1244
  • Source: G2C

2099. Prefrontal Cortex

The prefrontal cortex is thought to play an important role in 'higher' brain functions. It is a critical part of the executive system, which refers to planning, reasoning, and judgment.

  • ID: 2099
  • Source: G2C

1129. Frontal Lobe

The frontal lobe is part of the cerebral cortex and is the largest of the brain's structures. It is the main site of so–called 'higher' cognitive functions.

  • ID: 1129
  • Source: G2C

2121. Superior Temporal Gyrus

The superior temporal gyrus contain is responsible for processing sounds. It includes Wernicke's area, which is the major area involved in the comprehension of language.

  • ID: 2121
  • Source: G2C

872. Autism Neuropathology

Autism is not associated with any single deficit in the brain.

  • ID: 872
  • Source: G2C