Talpos, JC;
de-Wit, L;
Olley, J;
Riordan, J;
Steckler, T;
(2016)
Do wholes become more than the sum of their parts in the rodent (Rattus Norvegicus) visual system? A test case with the configural superiority effect.
European Journal of Neuroscience
, 44
(8)
pp. 2593-2599.
10.1111/ejn.13350.
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Abstract
The rodent has been used to model various aspects of the human visual system, but it is unclear to what extent human visual perception can be modelled in the rodent. Research suggests rodents can perform invariant object recognition tasks in a manner comparable to humans. There is further evidence that rodents also make use of certain grouping cues, but when performing a shape discrimination they have a tendency to rely much more on local image cues than human participants. In the current work, we exploit the fact that humans sometimes discriminate better between whole shapes, rather than the parts from which they are constructed, to ask whether rodents show a classic Configural Superiority Effect. Using touchscreen-equipped operant boxes, rats were trained to discriminate ‘part’ or ‘whole’ images based off of those used by J. R. Pomerantz et al. (1977) J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform, 3, 422–435. Here, we show that rats show no advantage for wholes and that they perform better when presented with simpler image parts, a pattern of effect opposite to what was seen in humans when highly comparable stimuli were used. These results add to our understanding of the similarities and differences between the human and rodent visual system, and suggest that the rodent visual system may not compute part whole relationships in a way comparable to humans. These results are significant from both a comparative anatomy perspective, and of particular relevance for those wishing to use rodents to model visuo-perceptual deficits associated with human psychiatric disorders.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Do wholes become more than the sum of their parts in the rodent (Rattus Norvegicus) visual system? A test case with the configural superiority effect |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1111/ejn.13350 |
| Publisher version: | http://doi.org/10.1111/ejn.13350 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2016 Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Talpos, JC; de-Wit, L; Olley, J; Riordan, J; Steckler, T; (2016) Do wholes become more than the sum of their parts in the rodent (Rattus Norvegicus) visual system? A test case with the configural superiority effect. European Journal of Neuroscience , 44 (8) pp. 2593-2599. 10.1111/ejn.13350, which has been published in final form at http://doi.org/10.1111/ejn.13350. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving. |
| Keywords: | Science & Technology, Life Sciences & Biomedicine, Neurosciences, Neurosciences & Neurology, Gestalt, touch screen, translation, visual perception, HOMO-SAPIENS, PERCEPTION, CORTEX, SCHIZOPHRENIA, IMPAIRMENT, GESTALTS, AUTISM, SHAPE, TOP |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1537525 |
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