Domain-general and Domain-specific Neural Changes Underlying Visual Expertise

Overview

Journal Neuroimage

Specialty Radiology

Date 2017 Dec 11

PMID 29223739

Citations 12

Authors

Farah Martens

Jessica Bulthe

Christine van Vliet

Hans Op de Beeck

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Visual expertise induces changes in neural processing for many different domains of expertise. However, it is unclear how expertise effects for different domains of expertise are related. In the present fMRI study, we combine large-scale univariate and multi-voxel analyses to contrast the expertise-related neural changes associated with two different domains of expertise, bird expertise (ornithology) and mineral expertise (mineralogy). Results indicated distributed expertise-related neural changes, with effects for both domains of expertise in high-level visual cortex and effects for bird expertise even extending to low-level visual regions and the frontal lobe. Importantly, a multivariate generalization analysis showed that effects in high-level visual cortex were specific to the domain of expertise. In contrast, the neural changes in the frontal lobe relating to expertise showed significant generalization, signaling the presence of domain-independent expertise effects. In conclusion, expertise is related to a combination of domain-specific and domain-general changes in neural processing.

Citing Articles

Jack of all trades, master of one: domain-specific and domain-general contributions to perceptual expertise in visual comparison.

Growns B, Dunn J, Helm R, Towler A, Mattijssen E, Martire K Cogn Res Princ Implic. 2024; 9(1):73.

PMID: 39467920 PMC: 11519270. DOI: 10.1186/s41235-024-00596-0.

Perceptual Expertise and Attention: An Exploration using Deep Neural Networks.

Das S, Mangun G, Ding M bioRxiv. 2024; .

PMID: 39464001 PMC: 11507720. DOI: 10.1101/2024.10.15.617743.

Fine-grained knowledge about manipulable objects is well-predicted by contrastive language image pre-training.

Walbrin J, Sossounov N, Mahdiani M, Vaz I, Almeida J iScience. 2024; 27(7):110297.

PMID: 39040066 PMC: 11261149. DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.110297.

Visual expertise modulates resting-state brain network dynamics in radiologists: a degree centrality analysis.

Wang H, Yao R, Zhang X, Chen C, Wu J, Dong M Front Neurosci. 2023; 17:1152619.

PMID: 37266545 PMC: 10229894. DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2023.1152619.

Deep learning models challenge the prevailing assumption that face-like effects for objects of expertise support domain-general mechanisms.

Yovel G, Grosbard I, Abudarham N Proc Biol Sci. 2023; 290(1998):20230093.

PMID: 37161322 PMC: 10170201. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2023.0093.

References

Brants M, Wagemans J, Op de Beeck H . Activation of fusiform face area by Greebles is related to face similarity but not expertise. J Cogn Neurosci. 2011; 23(12):3949-58. DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_00072. View

Kourtzi Z, Betts L, Sarkheil P, Welchman A . Distributed neural plasticity for shape learning in the human visual cortex. PLoS Biol. 2005; 3(7):e204. PMC: 1150289. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0030204. View

Schwarzlose R, Baker C, Kanwisher N . Separate face and body selectivity on the fusiform gyrus. J Neurosci. 2005; 25(47):11055-9. PMC: 6725864. DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2621-05.2005. View

Richler J, Gauthier I . A meta-analysis and review of holistic face processing. Psychol Bull. 2014; 140(5):1281-302. PMC: 4152424. DOI: 10.1037/a0037004. View

Gauthier I, Tarr M . Becoming a "Greeble" expert: exploring mechanisms for face recognition. Vision Res. 1997; 37(12):1673-82. DOI: 10.1016/s0042-6989(96)00286-6. View

Duchaine B, Nakayama K . The Cambridge Face Memory Test: results for neurologically intact individuals and an investigation of its validity using inverted face stimuli and prosopagnosic participants. Neuropsychologia. 2005; 44(4):576-85. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2005.07.001. View

Sigala N, Logothetis N . Visual categorization shapes feature selectivity in the primate temporal cortex. Nature. 2002; 415(6869):318-20. DOI: 10.1038/415318a. View

Wong A, Palmeri T, Rogers B, Gore J, Gauthier I . Beyond shape: how you learn about objects affects how they are represented in visual cortex. PLoS One. 2009; 4(12):e8405. PMC: 2794531. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0008405. View

Rossion B, Collins D, Goffaux V, Curran T . Long-term expertise with artificial objects increases visual competition with early face categorization processes. J Cogn Neurosci. 2007; 19(3):543-55. DOI: 10.1162/jocn.2007.19.3.543. View

10.

Hoenig K, Muller C, Herrnberger B, Sim E, Spitzer M, Ehret G . Neuroplasticity of semantic representations for musical instruments in professional musicians. Neuroimage. 2011; 56(3):1714-25. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2011.02.065. View

11.

Mongelli V, Dehaene S, Vinckier F, Peretz I, Bartolomeo P, Cohen L . Music and words in the visual cortex: The impact of musical expertise. Cortex. 2016; 86:260-274. DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2016.05.016. View

12.

Xu Y . Revisiting the role of the fusiform face area in visual expertise. Cereb Cortex. 2005; 15(8):1234-42. DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhi006. View

13.

Krawczyk D, Boggan A, McClelland M, Bartlett J . The neural organization of perception in chess experts. Neurosci Lett. 2011; 499(2):64-9. DOI: 10.1016/j.neulet.2011.05.033. View

14.

Brants M, Bulthe J, Daniels N, Wagemans J, Op de Beeck H . How learning might strengthen existing visual object representations in human object-selective cortex. Neuroimage. 2015; 127:74-85. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2015.11.063. View

15.

Harel A, Kravitz D, Baker C . Beyond perceptual expertise: revisiting the neural substrates of expert object recognition. Front Hum Neurosci. 2014; 7:885. PMC: 3873520. DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2013.00885. View

16.

Corbetta M, Shulman G . Control of goal-directed and stimulus-driven attention in the brain. Nat Rev Neurosci. 2002; 3(3):201-15. DOI: 10.1038/nrn755. View

17.

Tanaka J, Curran T . A neural basis for expert object recognition. Psychol Sci. 2001; 12(1):43-7. DOI: 10.1111/1467-9280.00308. View

18.

Op de Beeck H, Baker C . The neural basis of visual object learning. Trends Cogn Sci. 2009; 14(1):22-30. PMC: 2818494. DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2009.11.002. View

19.

Sigman M, Pan H, Yang Y, Stern E, Silbersweig D, Gilbert C . Top-down reorganization of activity in the visual pathway after learning a shape identification task. Neuron. 2005; 46(5):823-35. PMC: 1440484. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2005.05.014. View

20.

Folstein J, Palmeri T, Gauthier I . Category learning increases discriminability of relevant object dimensions in visual cortex. Cereb Cortex. 2012; 23(4):814-23. PMC: 3593573. DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhs067. View