Temporal differences and commonalities between hand and tool neural processing

• Object recognition is a complex cognitive process that relies on how the brain organizes object-related information. While spatial principles have been extensively studied, less studied temporal dynamics may also offer valuable insights into this process, particularly when neural processing overlaps for different categories, as it is the case of the categories of hands and tools. Here we focus on the differences and/or similarities between the time-courses of hand and tool processing under electroencephalography (EEG). Using multivariate pattern analysis, we compared, for different time points, classification accuracy for images of hands or tools when compared to images of animals. We show that for particular time intervals (~ 136–156ms and ~ 252–328ms), classification accuracy for hands and for tools differs. Furthermore, we show that classifiers trained to differentiate between tools and animals generalize their learning to classification of hand stimuli between ~ 260–320ms and ~ 376–500ms after stimulus onset. Classifiers trained to distinguish between hands and animals, on the other hand, were able to extend their learning to the classification of tools at ~ 150ms. These findings suggest variations in semantic features and domain-specific differences between the two categories, with later-stage similarities potentially related to shared action processing for hands and tools.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Psykologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Psychology (hsv//eng)

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)