Individual project

Funder: European Union

Period: 2024-2026

URI: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101149060

Detailed description: 
Visual objects in real life carry both perceptual and semantic information, which cannot readily be inferred from simple visual features and is based on prior knowledge. However, semantics is not a unitary concept; it can be separated into taxonomy (e.g. ducks and frogs are both animals) and co-occurrence (e.g. candles appear together with cakes). Previous studies have extensively characterized the role of taxonomy in visual cognition, while co-occurrence is less well-understood and more disputed. The aim of this proposal is to investigate the impact of object co-occurrence on object representation and visual cognition. The project has four objectives: First, I will use fMRI and EEG to identify where and when object co-occurrence statistics are represented in the brain, how they rival other competing organizations, and which mechanisms enable these representations. Objective 1 will provide a characterization of co-occurrence as a key organizational principle of object representation. Second, I will investigate how co-occurrence modulates neural competition between objects using fMRI. Objective 2 will clarify whether organizing objects based on co-occurrence can overcome information processing bottlenecks in the visual brain. Third, I will examine whether co-occurrence can facilitate conscious perception using the attentional blink paradigm and explore where and when neural representations of co-occurrence predict AB magnitudes. Fourth, I will investigate how and when co-occurrence impacts performance and neural processing in visual search using EEG. Objectives 3 and 4 will aid our understanding of how object co-occurrence contributes to human perception and cognition and thereby helps people to perform everyday tasks successfully. Overall, this research will provide a comprehensive characterization of how object co-occurrence in the world shapes human vision and open new avenues for explaining visual behaviors in natural environments.