2007 Summer Institute: Visual Perception and Cognition Conference

Sheng He
University of Minnesota

Selectivity and adaptation in the human visual system

Adaptation is ubiquitous in neural systems. Adaptation to specific properties can be used as evidence for neuronal selectivity. I will present several adaptation studies showing:

1. There is viewpoint specific representation of objects in ventral cortical areas;
2. fMRI adaptation effects depend critically on the duration of the adaptation stimulus;
3. Contingent adaptation occurs for low, intermediate and high level properties
4. The visual system is highly and often optimally adaptive.