Contributed Talk Sessions | Poster Sessions | All Posters | Search Papers

Poster Session C: Friday, August 15, 2:00 – 5:00 pm, de Brug & E‑Hall

The neural basis of abstraction representations in humans and non-human primates

Théo Morfoisse¹, Maxence Pajot², Paolo Papale³, Pieter R. Roelfsema⁴, Minye Zhan, Stanislas Dehaene; ¹Université Paris Cité, ²CEA, ³Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, ⁴AT&T

Presenter: Théo Morfoisse

The ability to recognize and manipulate abstract representations appears to be a fundamental aspect of human cognition, present since the origins of our species and transcending cultural barriers. In contrast, this capacity is very limited in non-human primates and artificial neural networks. To explore this distinction, we presented visual stimuli depicting the same concepts (e.g., faces, objects) at varying levels of abstractions (e.g., photos, drawings, words) to both humans and monkeys while recording neural activity using 7T fMRI and MEG in humans, and intracranial recordings in monkeys. Our findings reveal that while monkeys demonstrated a limited capacity for generalization – restricted mostly to faces – humans display a robust ability to abstract across all levels of abstraction, underscoring a fundamental specificity in conceptual processing.

Topic Area: Predictive Processing & Cognitive Control

Extended Abstract: Full Text PDF