Visual-object recognition (VOR) centrally requires ventral stream (VS) regions, but can also critically involve dorsal stream (DS) regions known to support visuomotor processing. How these streams are temporally engaged during VOR remains yet poorly understood. The present doctoral thesis will investigate VOR’s spatiotemporal dynamics, focusing on two DS-related cases: tool processing (particular ‘type’ of objects), and exemplar-level processing (considering objects as ‘token’).
After reviewing electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG) studies about tool processing, to create a unified view of this fragmented field (Study 1), I will conduct two empirical studies (Studies 2 and 3), using cutting-edge neuroimaging techniques, namely, EEG–functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) fusion and MRI-guided EEG source localization, to uncover the spatiotemporal dynamics of each of these two critical representational levels of VOR.
By doing so, this doctoral thesis will uncover the actual spatiotemporal unfolding of VOR, enabling the development of realistic models of its core mechanisms.
