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Science 12 January 2001:
Vol. 291. no. 5502, pp. 312 - 316
DOI: 10.1126/science.291.5502.312
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Reports

Categorical Representation of Visual Stimuli in the Primate Prefrontal Cortex

David J. Freedman,125 Maximilian Riesenhuber,345 Tomaso Poggio,345 Earl K. Miller125*

The ability to group stimuli into meaningful categories is a fundamental cognitive process. To explore its neural basis, we trained monkeys to categorize computer-generated stimuli as "cats" and "dogs." A morphing system was used to systematically vary stimulus shape and precisely define the category boundary. Neural activity in the lateral prefrontal cortex reflected the category of visual stimuli, even when a monkey was retrained with the stimuli assigned to new categories.

1 Center for Learning and Memory,
2 RIKEN-MIT Neuroscience Research Center,
3 Center for Biological and Computational Learning,
4 McGovern Institute for Brain Research,
5 Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: ekm{at}ai.mit.edu

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