From the concrete to the abstract

Abstract

Neuroscience![Figure][1] Monkeys use sophisticated categorization strategies—for example, while selecting what to eat. PHOTO: TAYAWEE SUPAN/SHUTTERSTOCK Early processing in the brain tends to simply represent external information from the sensory organs. However, to behave appropriately, organisms need to structure this input into meaningful categories and concepts. Brincat et al. recorded from multiple regions along the processing hierarchy in monkey brains while the animals performed sophisticated categorization tasks. Lower-level areas conveyed strong information about sensory stimuli within their preferred domains but indicated hardly any abstraction beyond the raw sensory inputs. In contrast, the prefrontal cortex, despite containing relatively weak information overall, showed strongly abstracted, task-relevant coding. Intermediate areas exhibited mixed representations, with partial categorical coding occurring in some domains but not others. Representational transformation thus happens gradually, across multiple cortical processing steps, rather than in a discrete, all-or-nothing fashion. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 10.1073/pnas.1717075115 (2018). [1]: pending:yes