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bioRxiv · 10.1101/2021.02.25.432436

Visual object categorization in infancy

Spriet, C.·Abassi, E.·Hochmann, J.-R.·Papeo, L.
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Abstract

Humans make sense of the world by organizing things into categories. When and how does this process begin? We investigated whether real-world object categories that spontaneously emerge in the first months of life match categorical representations of objects in the human visual cortex. Taking infants looking times as a measure of similarity, we defined a representational space where each object was defined in relation to others of the same or different categories. This space was compared with hypothesis-based and fMRI-based models of visual-object categorization in the adults visual cortex. Analyses across different age groups revealed an incremental process with two milestones. Between 4 and 10 months, visual exploration guided by saliency gives way to an organization according to the animate-inanimate distinction. Between 10 and 19 months, a category spurt leads towards a mature organization. We propose that these changes underlie the coupling between seeing and thinking in the developing mind.

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Spriet, C., Abassi, E., Hochmann, J.-R., Papeo, L.. 2021-02-26. Visual object categorization in infancy. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.25.432436

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