Hostname: page-component-77f85d65b8-lfk5g Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-04-19T15:02:24.878Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The folly of boxology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2017

Diane M. Beck  and
John Clevenger
Diane M. Beck
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL 61820. dmbeck@illinois.edu http://becklab.beckman.illinois.edu/ jcleven2@illinois.edu
John Clevenger
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL 61820. dmbeck@illinois.edu http://becklab.beckman.illinois.edu/ jcleven2@illinois.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Although the authors do a valuable service by elucidating the pitfalls of inferring top-down effects, they overreach by claiming that vision is cognitively impenetrable. Their argument, and the entire question of cognitive penetrability, seems rooted in a discrete, stage-like model of the mind that is unsupported by neural data.

Information

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 39 , 2016 , e231
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Baldauf, D. & Desimone, R. (2014) Neural mechanisms of object-based attention. Science 344(6182):424–27. Availabile at: http://doi.org/10.1126/science.1247003.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Buffalo, E. A., Bertini, G., Ungerleider, L. G. & Desimone, R. (2005) Impaired filtering of distracter stimuli by TE neurons following V4 and TEO lesions in Macaques. Cerebral Cortex 15(2):141–51. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhh117.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Çukur, T., Nishimoto, S., Huth, A. G. & Gallant, J. L. (2013) Attention during natural vision warps semantic representation across the human brain. Nature Neuroscience 16(6):763–70. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1038/nn.3381.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Esterman, M. & Yantis, S. (2010) Perceptual expectation evokes category-selective cortical activity. Cerebral Cortex 20(5):1245–53. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhp188.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gilbert, C. D. & Li, W. (2013) Top-down influences on visual processing. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 14(5):350–63.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hsieh, P.-J., Vul, E. & Kanwisher, N. (2010) Recognition alters the spatial pattern of FMRI activation in early retinotopic cortex. Journal of Neurophysiology 103:1501–507. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1152/jn.00812.2009.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hung, C. P., Kreiman, G., Poggio, T. & DiCarlo, J. J. (2005) Fast readout of object identity from macaque inferior temporal cortex. Science 310(5749):863–66. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1126/science.1117593.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kok, P., Jehee, J. F. M. & de Lange, F. P. (2012) Less is more: Expectation sharpens representations in the primary visual cortex. Neuron 75(2):265–70. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2012.04.034.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lee, S.-H., Blake, R. & Heeger, D. J. (2005) Traveling waves of activity in primary visual cortex during binocular rivalry. Nature Neuroscience 8(1):22–23. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1038/nn1365.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leopold, D. A. & Logothetis, N. K. (1996) Activity changes in early visual cortex reflect monkeys' percepts during binocular rivalry. Nature 379:549–53. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1038/379549a0.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Li, W., Piëch, V. & Gilbert, C. D. (2006) Contour saliency in primary visual cortex. Neuron 50(6):951–62.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Logothetis, N. K. & Schall, J. D. (1989) Neuronal correlates of subjective visual perception. Science 245(4919):761–63. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1126/science.2772635.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moore, T. & Armstrong, K. M. (2003) Selective gating of visual signals by microstimulation of frontal cortex. Nature 421(6921):370–73. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1038/nature01341.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Motter, B. C. (1993) Focal attention produces spatially selective processing in visual cortical areas V1, V2, and V4 in the presence of competing stimuli. Journal of Neurophysiology 70(3):909–19. Available at: http://doi.org/0022-3077/93.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Newsome, W. T., Britten, K. H. & Movshon, J. A. (1989) Neuronal correlates of a perceptual decision. Nature 341(6237):52–54. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1038/341052a0.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
O'Connor, D. H., Fukui, M. M., Pinsk, M. A. & Kastner, S. (2002) Attention modulates responses in the human lateral geniculate nucleus. Nature Neuroscience 5(11):1203–209. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1038/nn957.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pascual-Leone, A. & Walsh, V. (2001) Fast backprojections from the motion to the primary visual area necessary for visual awareness. Science 292(5516):510–12. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1126/science.1057099.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roelfsema, P. R. & Spekreijse, H. (2001) The representation of erroneously perceived stimuli in the primary visual cortex. Neuron 31(5):853–63. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1016/S0896-6273(01)00408-1.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Scolari, M., Byers, A. & Serences, J. T. (2012) Optimal deployment of attentional gain during fine discriminations. Journal of Neuroscience 32(22):7723–33. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5558-11.2012.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
van Loon, A. M., Fahrenfort, J. J., van der Velde, B., Lirk, P. B., Vulink, N. C. C., Hollmann, M. W., Scholte, S. & Lamme, V. A. F. (2015) NMDA receptor antagonist ketamine distorts object recognition by reducing feedback to early visual cortex. Cerebral Cortex 26(5):1986–96. . Available at: http://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhv018.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Walther, D. B., Caddigan, E., Fei-Fei, L. & Beck, D. M. (2009) Natural scene categories revealed in distributed patterns of activity in the human brain. Journal of Neuroscience 29(34):10573–81. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0559-09.2009.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wunderlich, K., Schneider, K. A. & Kastner, S. (2005) Neural correlates of binocular rivalry in the human lateral geniculate nucleus. Nature Neuroscience 8(11):1595–602. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1038/nn1554.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed