Internal Object Representations Research Articles

Toward a Common Circle: Interhemispheric Contextual Modulation in Human Early Visual Areas

Humans can readily and effortlessly perceive a rich, stable, and unified visual world from a complex visual scene. Yet our internal representation of a visual object appears to be sparse and fragmented. How and where in the brain are such fragmented representations organized into a whole percept? Recent studies have accumulated evidence that some global feature integration is mediated at the early stage of visual processing. However, the spatial operating range of the integration still remains unclear. The present human functional magnetic resonance imaging study provides support that the global integration process in early visual areas, including even the primary visual area V1, is mediated beyond the separated projection of visual hemifields from right and left sides of the fixation to the visual cortex of the contralateral cerebral hemisphere. Retinotopic neural responses corresponding to a visual target were significantly enhanced when another target was simultaneously presented at the point-symmetrical position in the nonassociated visual field quadrant. The result makes a convincing case that the contextual effects involve feedback from higher areas, because there are no direct callosal connections that allow such interhemispheric contextual modulation. This enhancement from the ipsilateral hemifield may help rapid position-and-size-invariant detection of a circular pattern, which may be special among visual structures because of its ubiquity in natural scenes. Early visual areas as well as higher ones may play a more essential role in perceiving the unity of the real world than previously thought.

Gamma-band activity over early sensory areas predicts detection of changes in audiovisual speech stimuli

Oscillatory activity in the gamma-band range in human magneto- and electroencephalogram is thought to reflect the oscillatory synchronization of cortical networks. Findings of enhanced gamma-band activity (GBA) during cognitive processes like gestalt perception, attention and memory have led to the notion that GBA may reflect the activation of internal object representations. However, there is little direct evidence suggesting that GBA is related to subjective perceptual experience. In the present study, magnetoencephalogram was recorded during an audiovisual oddball paradigm with infrequent visual (auditory /ta/ + visual /pa/) or acoustic deviants (auditory /pa/ + visual /ta/) interspersed in a sequence of frequent audiovisual standard stimuli (auditory /ta/ + visual /ta/). Sixteen human subjects had to respond to perceived acoustic changes which could be produced either by real acoustic or illusory (visual) deviants. Statistical probability mapping served to identify correlations between oscillatory activity in response to visual and acoustic deviants, respectively, and the detection rates for either type of deviant. The perception of illusory acoustic changes induced by visual deviants was closely associated with gamma-band amplitude at ∼80 Hz between 250 and 350 ms over midline occipital cortex. In contrast, the detection of real acoustic deviants correlated positively with induced GBA at ∼42 Hz between 200 and 300 ms over left superior temporal cortex and negatively with evoked gamma responses at ∼41 Hz between 220 and 240 ms over occipital areas. These findings support the relevance of high-frequency oscillatory activity over early sensory areas for perceptual experience.

Early processing deficits in object working memory in first-episode schizophreniform psychosis and established schizophrenia

While there are many studies showing working-memory deficits in schizophrenia there are only a few that disentangle impairments for working-memory subprocesses such as perceptual, attentional, mnemonic and executive function. In this study of delay-dependent memory, 55 patients with schizophreniform psychosis, 50 with established schizophrenia and 56 healthy controls were investigated. Using the delayed matching-to-sample task from the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB), performance deficits were found in both patient groups after controlling for age and pre-morbid IQ. Even after controlling for simultaneous matching-to-sample ability (i.e. perceptual matching), impaired performance in both patient groups was found as soon as the stimuli were no longer present. Impaired performance was not due to different types of errors in patients versus controls. Performance in both patient groups was comparable, except for a slight decrease of overall task performance. This suggests that the deficit is relatively stable during the course of the illness. Our results suggest a deficit in patients with psychotic illness in the initial processes necessary to actively maintain information, such as the ability to form an internal representation of complex objects.

Efficient pose estimation using view-based object representations

We present an efficient method for estimating the pose of a three-dimensional object. Its implementation is embedded in a computer vision system which is motivated by and based on cognitive principles concerning the visual perception of three-dimensional objects. Viewpoint-invariant object recognition has been subject to controversial discussions for a long time. An important point of discussion is the nature of internal object representations. Behavioral studies with primates, which are summarized in this article, support the model of view-based object representations. We designed our computer vision system according to these findings and demonstrate that very precise estimations of the poses of real-world objects are possible even if only a small number of sample views of an object is available. The system can be used for a variety of applications.

Self-efficacy and mental models in learning to program

Learning to program is a unique experience for each student, and it is not fully understood why one person in an introductory programming course learns to program better and more quickly than the next. Self-efficacy is an individual's judgment of his or her ability to perform a task within a specific domain [1]. A mental model is a person's internal (mental) representation of real world objects and systems [9]. Research has shown that high self-efficacy and a good mental model are important to knowledge acquisition and transfer. This research investigates the effects of students' self-efficacy and mental models of programming on learning to program. The results show that self-efficacy for programming is influenced by previous programming experience and increases as a student progresses through an introductory programming course. The results also show that the student's mental model of programming influences self-efficacy and that both the mental model and self-efficacy affect course performance.

Learning of grasp control in children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy

This study examined whether children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy (CP) have anticipatory control of fingertip forces during lifts of familiar objects, and what type of practice (blocked or random) best enhances the retention of anticipatory control during lifts of novel objects. Eighteen children with hemiplegic CP (7 females, 11 males; 7 to 14 years of age, mean age 10 years, SD 1.8) and 18 age‐matched typically developing children (8 males, 10 females; mean age 10.4 years, SD 1.7) participated in the study. In the first experiment the children lifted familiar objects of various weights and sizes five times each, while the vertical lifting (load) force was measured. Most participants demonstrated higher rates of load force increase for heavier (and larger) objects already during the first lift, indicating anticipatory control. Furthermore, the load force rates generally were similar across the five lifts for each object, suggesting that they had stable representations of the objects’properties. In the second experiment children lifted three novel objects varying in weight (but identical in volume) 27 times each, in either a blocked or a random order, followed by nine immediate and nine delayed (24 hours) retention trials. Blocked practice resulted in greater differentiation of the force rates between objects during acquisition than did random practice. Both practice schedules resulted in similar retention. These findings suggest that children with hemiplegic CP have a priori internal representations used for anticipatory force scaling with familiar objects. Furthermore, the results indicate that these children can form and retain internal representations of novel objects for anticipatory control, irrespective of the type of practice schedule employed. Thus, clinically based practice sessions that incorporate lifts with novel objects may enhance anticipatory force scaling and related prehensile function in children with hemiplegic CP.

Verdi's Rigoletto: The dialectic interplay of the psychic positions in seemingly ‘mindless’ violence

In this paper the author demonstrates the interplay of the psychic positions (paranoid‐schizoid and depressive, alongside more primitive mental states) as they may appear in experiences of overwhelming anxieties relating to fragmentation and disintegration. These are examined in relation to the appearance of what has been described in the literature as ‘mindless’ violence. The vehicle for this demonstration is Verdi's opera Rigoletto, which the author examines using Fonagy and Target's model for the understanding of mindless violence. The opera is ‘read’ as a case study of the protagonist, using the drama as a reflection of Rigoletto's internal object representations. The author attempts to extend Fonagy and Target's model to include primitive mental states, in order to understand ‘mindless’ violence as a result of collapse of the dialectical relationship of the psychic positions, leading to the violent act as a desperate attempt at re‐establishing a sense of self. From this perspective, the moment of the violent act may be seen as use of an autistic object and as supplying of autistic shape. The violence is ultimately directed against the already fragmenting self, especially cherished parts of it, however it may enable acknowledgement of repudiated, unmentalised emotions previously experienced as a void.

Verdi's Rigoletto: the dialectic interplay of the psychic positions in seemingly 'mindless' violence.

In this paper the author demonstrates the interplay of the psychic positions (paranoid-schizoid and depressive, alongside more primitive mental states) as they may appear in experiences of overwhelming anxieties relating to fragmentation and disintegration. These are examined in relation to the appearance of what has been described in the literature as 'mindless' violence. The vehicle for this demonstration is Verdi's opera Rigoletto, which the author examines using Fonagy and Target's model for the understanding of mindless violence. The opera is 'read' as a case study of the protagonist, using the drama as a reflection of Rigoletto's internal object representations. The author attempts to extend Fonagy and Target's model to include primitive mental states, in order to understand 'mindless' violence as a result of collapse of the dialectical relationship of the psychic positions, leading to the violent act as a desperate attempt at re-establishing a sense of self. From this perspective, the moment of the violent act may be seen as use of an autistic object and as supplying of autistic shape. The violence is ultimately directed against the already fragmenting self, especially cherished parts of it, however it may enable acknowledgement of repudiated, unmentalised emotions previously experienced as a void.

Holding Contradictions Together: an Object-Relational View of Healthy Spirituality

This paper challenges the classical psychoanalytic perspective on religion by an exploration of what can be understood by healthy and unhealthy spirituality. Drawing on object relations theory, the paper suggests that a hallmark of healthy spirituality is the capacity to revise internal object-representations of God in the light of experience and exploration. The work of Rodney Bomford is used to illuminate the kind of God image a spiritually healthy person might possess.

Convergence: maturation and integration in the course of a religious conversion.

The process of religious conversion has not been the focus of psychoanalytic understanding. This article examines one conversion narrative, a spiritual autobiography, in which, the author asserts, evidence can be found that the conversion described involved a process of maturation of the subject's internal god-representation, with an integration of maternal and paternal aspects of that internal object representation. Such a process as one aspect of a religious conversion, has implications for psychoanalytic work with religious patients, including the necessity of acknowledging the psychological and deeply believed reality of God for religious patients.

Object representations in dreams of Chicanos and Anglos.

The relationship between the cultures to which persons belong and their internalized object representations as revealed by manifest dream content was investigated. It was hypothesized that because Chicanos are from a more nurturing culture than Anglos, they would represent persons in their dreams as more differentiated, articulated, and integrated, with more benevolent interactions. 50 Chicano and 50 Anglo university students (25 of each gender in each culture) reported a total of 555 dreams that were scored according to the Concept of the Object Scale (Blatt, Brenneis, Schimek & Glick, 1976). The Scale applies developmental principles concerning the three dimensions of differentiation, articulation, and integration to the study of human responses given to the Rorschach. This research applied the Scale to the manifest content of the subjects' reported dreams. The cross-cultural hypothesis was disconfirmed; however, there were strong findings concerning gender. Gender differences across culture were statistically significant in each developmental dimension, ranging from females representing more humans, who are better articulated and more benevolently interactive (p < .01) to females reporting more intentional, congruent actions and more interactions (p < .05). The only cross-cultural finding was that Anglos represent more action in their dreams than Chicanos (p < .05). Within the sample of acculturated Chicano subjects, genders were polarized to a much greater extent than in the Anglo sample. Implications of the findings for theoretical understanding of gender and cultural differences in object representations are discussed.

Migration and Cultural Orientation: An Empirical Test of the Psychoanalytic Theory in Chinese Americans

The psychoanalytic literature suggests migration entails an intra-psychic challenge of separation–individuation that necessitates the assistance of internal and external objects. While this has been illustrated by anecdotal data and clinical case material, it has not been previously tested in the general migrant community. This study examined three Chinese-American groups who varied in the availability of external objects (i.e., primary caretakers) and stability and solidity of internal object and self representations due to varying developmental stages at the time of migration, and assessed whether, as predicted by some psychoanalytic writers, they would have differential need to embrace their native culture to support their transition. Results showed that unaccompanied minors who migrated without their parents during adolescence evidenced a stronger Chinese cultural orientation than both accompanied minors who migrated with their parents during childhood (perhaps due to less access to external objects) and unaccompanied adults who migrated without their parents during adulthood (perhaps due to less well internalized objects), lending empirical support for the psychoanalytic postulation. Implications of the findings for future research and intervention are discussed.

Statistical efficiency of the object recognition with wire-frame stimuli

To investigate whether internal object representations in the brain are 2D or 3D, we measured discrimination thresholds and calculated statistical efficiencies in the object recognition task based on the ideal observer analysis. Stimulus images were created by orthographic projection of 3D wire-frame objects on a fronto-parallel plane. The discrimination task with the wire-frame stimuli was performed in the monocular (Experiment 1) and the binocular (Experiment 2) conditions. The results indicate that the subjects' statistical efficiencies relative to the 2D ideal observer exceeded 100%, suggesting that the internal object representations should be 3D. In addition, the results revealed that the object type with high-level symmetry led to better discrimination in both experiments. Furthermore, the interaction between 3D cue values and the object regularity was suggested to cause the viewpoint dependency.

Neural pathways in tactile object recognition.

To define further the brain regions involved in tactile object recognition using functional MRI (fMRI) techniques. The neural substrates involved in tactile object recognition (TOR) have not been elucidated. Studies of nonhuman primates and humans suggest that basic motor and somatosensory mechanisms are involved at a peripheral level; however, the mechanisms of higher order object recognition have not been determined. The authors investigated 11 normal volunteers utilizing fMRI techniques in an attempt to determine the neural pathways involved in TOR. Each individual performed a behavioral paradigm with the activated condition involving identification of objects by touch, with identification of rough/smooth as the control. Data suggest that in a majority of individuals, TOR involves the calcarine and extrastriatal cortex, inferior parietal lobule, inferior frontal gyrus, and superior frontal gyrus-polar region. TOR may utilize visual systems to access an internal object representation. The parietal cortices and inferior frontal regions may be involved in a concomitant lexical strategy of naming the object being examined. Frontal polar activation likely serves a role in visuospatial working memory or in recognizing unusual representations of objects. Overall, these findings suggest that TOR could involve a network of cortical regions subserving somatosensory, motor, visual, and, at times, lexical processing. The primary finding suggests that in this normal study population, the visual cortices may be involved in the topographic spatial processing of TOR.

Internal representation of spectral information in dependence of signal type and auditory filter bandwidth

Previous studies have shown that enhancement of the spectral background (lower level spectral components) improves intelligibility as well as listening comfort of music signals in subjects with broader than normal auditory filters. This is in contrast to reported results on speech perception in noise, yielding reduced intelligibility as a result of spectral contrast reduction. A proposed model for the internal object representation by separation of ‘‘spectral layers’’ accounts for these opposing effects. ‘‘Spectral layers,’’ corresponding to different sound sources [in music: dominant/accompanying musical voices; in speech-in-quiet: formant peaks/modulation sidebands of the peaks (transitions); in speech-in-noise: speech foreground/speech background/noise components] are represented in coherent spectral amplitudes. The audibility of ‘‘spectral layers’’ is derived from individual masking properties. Pilot experiments with speech tokens and short music fragments agree relatively well with the model predictions: The effect of either increasing or reducing the spectral contrast on discrimination highly depends on the distribution of the perceptually relevant acoustical information in the ‘‘spectral layers’’ relative to their audibility. Performance varies for different signal types (simultaneous musical voices, vowel, consonant). [Work supported by the Austrian Academy of Sciences.]

The Psychoanalytic Treatment of a Child with Deviational Development

This paper presents the analysis of Peter, a five-year-old boy with compromised ego functions including difficulties in maintaining stable internalized object representations. Despite these serious problems, which are often seen as contraindicating analysis, a predominantly traditional psychoanalytic position emphasizing dynamic interpretations was utilized. Detailed clinical material is presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach in facilitating therapeutic changes in Peter.

Toward direct visualization of the internal shape representation space by fMRI

Reports of columnar organization of the macaque inferotemporal cortex (Tanaka, 1992, 1993a) indicate that ensembles of cells responding to particular objects may be both sufficiently extensive and properly localized to allow their detection and discrimination by means of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). A recently developed theory of object representation by ensembles of coarsely tuned units (Edelman, 1998; Edelman & Duvdevani-Bar, 1997b) and its implementation as a computer model of recognition and categorization (Cutzu & Edelman, 1998; Edelman & Duvdevani-Bar, 1997a) provide a computational framework in which such findings can be interpreted in a straightforward fashion. Taken together, these developments in the study of object representation and recognition suggest that direct visualization of the internal representations may be easier than was previously thought. In this paper, we show how fMRI techniques can be used to investigate the internal representation of objects in the human visual cortex. Our initial results reveal that the activation of most voxels in object-related areas remains unaffected by a coarse scrambling of the natural images used as stimuli and that a map of the representation space of object categories in individual subjects can be derived from the distributed pattern of voxel activation in those areas.

Object Relations Theory and Marital Interaction

SUMMARY A model of marital communication based on object relations theory is presented, and its utility in integrating and organizing findings from psychological research on marital interaction is described. The model includes context and process components. The context model describes stages of development and lines of development in marriage that jointly influence the sorts of situations that come to the couple's attention. The process model describes a path that leads from situations to each partner's representation of the situation, and then to the acts of communication that form the partners' interaction. The influence of internal object representations on the process of communication is depicted. A feedback loop in the model implies both the possibility of change and also the potential limits on change at several levels of the marital system. Possible paths of unconscious communication are described that reflect the more dynamic aspects of object relations theory. Principal findings from psychologic...

Switching attention within and between objects: The role of subjective organization.

Abstract An object effect refers to faster and/or more accurate responses to targets when they are part of a single object than when they are parts of two different objects Duncan, 1984). Egly, Driver, and Rafal (1994) recently showed that switching attention within an object is faster than switching attention between objects. In the experiments reported here, an object effect was found if a stimulus pattern was subjectively organized into two objects, but disappeared if the same pattern was seen as a single object. The study provides converging evidence to the existence of multiple levels of visual representations. It suggests that attention selects the internal representation of both space and object, and that subjective organization is an important factor in the manifestation of the object effect. Encoding selectivity is an important function of the visual system. Such selectivity can be achieved by attending only to a particular region of space and whatever it contains, or by attending to a particular object, regardless of where it is. Although no consensus exists among researchers as to whether attention is best described as primarily spacebased (e.g. Posner, Snyder, & Davidson, 1980; Tsal & Lavie, 1988, 1993), object-based (e.g. Duncan, 1984), or both (e.g. Egly, Driver, & Rafal, 1994; Kramer & Jacobson, 1991; Vecera, 1994; Vecera & Farah, 1994), many people would perhaps agree that the subjective parsing of a visual scene is an important factor affecting the distribution of attention. For instance, when viewing Rubin's (1921) faces-vase ambiguous figure, an observer's allocation of attention should depend heavily on whether she sees the figure as two faces or as a vase. Prinzmetal and Keysar (1989, Exp. 2) also showed that when participants were induced to group a 4 x 4 evenly spaced stimulus array as either rows or columns, they made twice as many within group illusory conjunction errors (Treisman & Schmidt, 1982) than between group ones. In other words, participants were more likely to erroneously combine features from adjacent items within the same row once they subjectively organized the stimulus array into rows rather than columns, and vice versa. However, although much research has been dedicated to the effects of subjective organization on visual perception (e.g. Carrasco & Chang, 1995; Coren & Girgus, 1980; Jenkins & Ross, 1977; Jonides & Gleitman, 1972; Yantis, 1992), few people have directly investigated the relationship between the subjective organization of a visual scene and an object-based allocation of attention. The experiments reported in this paper focus on this issue. There is no doubt that space plays an extremely important role in visual selection (e.g. Downing & Pinker, 1985; Eriksen & Eriksen, 1974; Eriksen & Hoffman, 1972; 1973; Eriksen & St. James, 1986; Hoffman & Nelson, 1981; Posner, 1980; Posner et al., 1980; Treisman & Gelade, 1980; Tsal & Lavie, 1988, 1993). Posner and his colleagues (Posner, 1980; Posner et al., 1980) demonstrated this clearly in their studies. In a typical Posner experiment, participants' task was to detect a luminance change as quickly as possible after a briefly flashed central cue. The cue could be either informative or uninformative. When it was informative and valid (this type of trial typically comprises 70% to 80% of all informative cue trials), the subsequent target appeared at the cued location. When the cue was informative but invalid, the target occurred at one of the uncued locations. When the cue was uninformative, i.e., neutral, the target was equally likely to appear at any of the possible target locations. Relative to neutral cue trials, participants were faster and/or more accurate at detecting the target given a valid cue, and they were slower and/or less accurate given an invalid cue. Although the importance of space in the distribution of attention continues to gain evidence from behavioural studies on healthy people (e. …

Occupational Group Therapy in a Psychiatric Day Care Unit for Long-term Mentally Ill Patients

The outcomes of 20 patients participating in occupational group therapy at a psychiatric outpatient unit were explored and related to perceptions of the ward atmosphere and the treatment process. The outcome variables—psychiatric symptoms, global mental health, quality of life and occupational functioning—were measured at admission, at discharge and 1 year after discharge. The ward atmosphere was rated twice a year and the treatment process once a month. The study used a combined within-group and between-group design. The ward atmosphere showed stability over a period of 5 years and was rated by patients and staff as beneficial for both psychotic and non-psychotic patients. Low levels of anger and aggression and staff control and high levels of support and order and organization were the most prominent features of the unit. Several characteristics of the ward atmosphere were related to outcome, e.g. an optimal level of anger and aggression as perceived by the patients initially in treatment was significantly related to improvement in global mental health and occupational functioning. The patients improved from admission to discharge on all the outcome variables except for quality of life. Contrasted with a matched comparison group, the patients' improvement was significantly higher regarding a measure of global functioning. Thirteen of the twenty patients were judged as having attained clinically significant change. With respect to the treatment process, patient ratings of a better working relationship vis à vis the main therapist compared to the other occupational therapists were significantly related to improvement in global mental health and occupational functioning, as well as to a principal component accounting for a large proportion of the variance in the outcome measures used. Furthermore, patient participation, especially in a psychological sense, was related to a better performance in everyday occupations and to the principal component reflecting outcome. In-depth analyses of three representative case studies illustrated the relationships that were established at a group level and mediated specific patient experiences. A percept-genetic test (PORT) revealed that the patients' external life situations and psychiatric problems were reflected in their internal object representations, and vice versa. A more benign picture testing at a 1–year follow-up indicated that the therapy had influenced the patients' internal object representations.