Unique Contributions of Perceptual and Conceptual Humanness to Object Representations in the Human Brain dataset
  • Description

    The human brain is able to quickly and accurately identify objects in a dynamic visual world. Objects evoke different patterns of neural activity in the visual system, which reflect object category memberships. However, the underlying dimensions of object representations in the brain remain unclear. Recent research suggests that objects similarity to humans is one of the main dimensions used by the brain to organise objects, but the nature of the human-similarity features driving this organisation are still unknown. Here, we investigate the relative contributions of perceptual and conceptual features of humanness to the representational organisation of objects in the human visual system. We collected behavioural judgements of human-similarity of various objects, which were compared with time-resolved neuroimaging responses to the same objects. The behavioural judgement tasks targeted either perceptual or conceptual humanness features to determine their respective contribution to perceived human-similarity. Behavioural and neuroimaging data revealed significant and unique contributions of both perceptual and conceptual features of humanness, each explaining unique variance in neuroimaging data. Furthermore, our results showed distinct spatio-temporal dynamics in the processing of conceptual and perceptual humanness features, with later and more lateralised brain responses to conceptual features. This study highlights the critical importance of social requirements in information processing and organisation in the human brain. - We used a previously published stimulus set and corresponding EEG data, obtainable from https://osf.io/a7knv/. - This repository contains the additional data and analysis code for the current study. To recreate the result figures from the paper, see the README in the code directory.


    • Data publication title Unique Contributions of Perceptual and Conceptual Humanness to Object Representations in the Human Brain dataset
    • Description

      The human brain is able to quickly and accurately identify objects in a dynamic visual world. Objects evoke different patterns of neural activity in the visual system, which reflect object category memberships. However, the underlying dimensions of object representations in the brain remain unclear. Recent research suggests that objects similarity to humans is one of the main dimensions used by the brain to organise objects, but the nature of the human-similarity features driving this organisation are still unknown. Here, we investigate the relative contributions of perceptual and conceptual features of humanness to the representational organisation of objects in the human visual system. We collected behavioural judgements of human-similarity of various objects, which were compared with time-resolved neuroimaging responses to the same objects. The behavioural judgement tasks targeted either perceptual or conceptual humanness features to determine their respective contribution to perceived human-similarity. Behavioural and neuroimaging data revealed significant and unique contributions of both perceptual and conceptual features of humanness, each explaining unique variance in neuroimaging data. Furthermore, our results showed distinct spatio-temporal dynamics in the processing of conceptual and perceptual humanness features, with later and more lateralised brain responses to conceptual features. This study highlights the critical importance of social requirements in information processing and organisation in the human brain. - We used a previously published stimulus set and corresponding EEG data, obtainable from https://osf.io/a7knv/. - This repository contains the additional data and analysis code for the current study. To recreate the result figures from the paper, see the README in the code directory.


    • Data type dataset
    • Keywords
      • EEG
      • Cognitive Neuroscience
      • The MARCS Institute
    • Funding source
    • Grant number(s)
      • -
    • FoR codes
      • 520203 - Cognitive neuroscience
      SEO codes
      Temporal (time) coverage
    • Start date
    • End date
    • Time period
       
      Spatial (location,mapping) coverage
    • Locations
      Data Locations

      Type Location Notes
      URL https://osf.io/3ed8f/
      The Data Manager is: Tijl Grootswagers
      Access conditions Open
      The data will be licensed under
    • Other license
    • Statement of rights in data Copyright Western Sydney University
      Citation Grootswagers, Tijl; Varlet, Manuel (2021): Unique Contributions of Perceptual and Conceptual Humanness to Object Representations in the Human Brain dataset. OSF. https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/3ED8F