How the brain implements recognition of familiar faces, objects, and scenes at the neural level?

Bicanski and Burgess 2019 propose that grid cells support visual recognition memory, by encoding translation vectors between salient stimulus features. They provide an explicit neural mechanism for the role of directed saccades in hypothesis-driven, constructive perception and recognition, and of the hippocampal formation in relational visual memory.


Pic: Bicanski and Burgess 2019.

Highlights

  • Visual grid cells can encode saccade vectors between salient stimulus features
  • A sequence of (memory-guided) saccades confirms stimulus identity
  • Known properties of grid cells confer size and position invariance onto the model
  • Grid cell lesions may impair relational memory and could contribute to prosopagnosia

For further info, please read the paper Bicanski and Burgess 2019.

Bicanski, Andrej, and Neil Burgess. “A Computational Model of Visual Recognition Memory via Grid Cells.” Current Biology (2019).