Shape-coding in IT cells generalizes over contrast and mirror reversal, but not figure-ground reversal

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Abstract
We assessed how the visual shape preferences of neurons in the inferior temporal cortex of awake, behaving monkeys generalized across three different stimulus transformations. Stimulus-preferences of particular cells among different polygon displays were correlated across reversed contrast polarity or mirror reversal, but not across figure–ground reversal. This corresponds with psychological findings on human shape judgments. Our results imply that neurons in inferior temporal cortex respond to components of visual shape derived only after figure–ground assignment of contours, not to the contours themselves.