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Poster B93 in Poster Session B - Thursday, August 8, 2024, 1:30 – 3:30 pm, Johnson Ice Rink
An account of the genesis of the parvo- and magnocellular division based on early visual experience
Lukas Vogelsang1 (), Marin Vogelsang1, Gordon Pipa2, Sidney Diamond1, Pawan Sinha1; 1Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT, 2Institute of Cognitive Science, Osnabrueck University
The division of the early visual pathway into parvo- and magnocellular systems with distinct response properties is broadly acknowledged to be a prominent organizing principle in the mammalian visual system. Characteristic of this division are differential sensitivities to high spatial frequencies and colors, with parvo cells exhibiting high sensitivity and magno cells exhibiting low sensitivity to both. While this distinction is generally accepted, its genesis remains unclear. Here, we provide a potential account based on trajectories of early sensory development. Specifically, we hypothesize that the temporal confluence of constraints on spatial frequency and chromatic sensitivities during development may play a critical role in shaping neuronal response properties characteristic of this division. Receptive field analyses of deep neural networks trained on developmentally inspired ‘biomimetic’ protocols strongly support this hypothesis. Further, biomimetic training induces a more human-like classification bias towards global shape rather than local texture information, driven by magnocellular-like units. These results provide a potential account for the emergence of a key aspect of visual pathway organization and have implications for designing improved training procedures for deep networks.
Keywords: deep neural networks neurophysiology sensory development texture/shape