Neurons and Cognition (q-bio.NC)

Abstract: Computational models are an essential tool for understanding the origin and functions of the topographic organisation of the primate visual system. Yet, vision is most commonly modelled by convolutional neural networks that ignore topography by learning identical features across space. Here, we overcome this limitation by developing All-Topographic Neural Networks (All-TNNs). Trained on visual input, several features of primate topography emerge in All-TNNs: smooth orientation maps and cortical magnification in their first layer, and category-selective areas in their final layer. In addition, we introduce a novel dataset of human spatial biases in object recognition, which enables us to directly link models to behaviour. We demonstrate that All-TNNs significantly better align with human behaviour than previous state-of-the-art convolutional models due to their topographic nature. All-TNNs thereby mark an important step forward in understanding the spatial organisation of the visual brain and how it mediates visual behaviour.