How the brain recognizes what the eye sees

If you think self-driving cars can’t get here soon enough, you’re not alone. But programming computers to recognize objects is very technically challenging, especially since scientists don’t fully understand how our own brains do it. How precisely this recognition happens is still a mystery, in part because neurons that encode objects respond in complicated ways. Associate Professor Tatyana Sharpee and Research Associate Ryan Rowekamp have developed a statistical method that takes these complex responses and describes them in interpretable ways, which could be used to help decode vision for computer-simulated vision. The duo analyzed how neurons in a critical part of the brain, called V2, respond to natural scenes, providing a better understanding of vision processing and how the brain works in general.