Three-stage processing of category and variation information by entangled interactive mechanisms of peri-occipital and peri-frontal cortices

Object recognition has been a central question in human vision research. The general consensus is that the ventral and dorsal visual streams are the major processing pathways undertaking objects’ category and variation processing. This overlooks mounting evidence supporting the role of peri-frontal areas in category processing. Yet, many aspects of visual processing in peri-frontal areas have remained unattended including whether these areas play role only during active recognition and whether they interact with lower visual areas or process information independently. To address these questions, subjects were presented with a set of variation-controlled object images while their EEG were recorded. Considerable amounts of category and variation information were decodable from occipital, parietal, temporal and prefrontal electrodes. Using information-selectivity indices, phase and Granger causality analyses, three processing stages were identified showing distinct directions of information transaction between peri-frontal and peri-occipital areas suggesting their parallel yet interactive role in visual processing. A brain-plausible model supported the possibility of interactive mechanisms in peri-occipital and peri-frontal areas. These findings, while promoting the role of prefrontal areas in object recognition, extend their contributions from active recognition, in which peri-frontal to peri-occipital pathways are activated by higher cognitive processes, to the general sensory-driven object and variation processing.