The findings of Schlack and Albright (2007) and others (e.g., Zhou and Fuster, 2000), however, imply that orientation-tone associative learning should lead to selective top-down activation of cortical neurons representing the stimuli recalled by association. By this logic, viewing of each

of the orientation discriminanda will not only drive orientation-selective neurons in visual cortex but should also activate the corresponding frequency-selective neurons in auditory cortex. If the distributions of recall-related neuronal activity in auditory cortex are sufficiently distinct (as would be expected for 200 Hz versus 1,000 Hz tones) those activations may be the basis for improved selleck chemicals discrimination of the visual orientations (relative to the untrained state). In other words, the improved discriminability of visual orientations MLN0128 is made possible through the use of neuronal proxies, which are established by the learned category labels (tones). This is recognizably the same process that I have termed implicit imagery, but in this case

it serves perceptual learning. You see… a hoarfrost on deeply plowed furrows. This fictional exchange between two 19th century painters was penned by the Parisian critic Louis Leroy (1874) after viewing Camille Pissarro’s painting titled Hoarfrost at Ennery (Gilee Blanche) ( Figure 7) at the first major exhibition of impressionist art (in Paris, 1874). Leroy was not a fan and his goal was satire, but his critic’s assertion, “but the impression is there,” nonetheless captures the essence of the art (and Leroy’s term “impressionism” was, ironically,

adopted as the name PD184352 (CI-1040) of the movement). Indeed, it is precisely what the artist intended, and the art form’s legitimacy—and ultimately its brilliance—rests on the conviction that the “impression” (the retinal stimulus) is merely a spark for associative pictorial recall. The impressionist painter does not attempt to provide pictorial detail, but rather creates conditions that enable the viewer to charge the percept, to complete the picture, based on his/her unique prior experiences. (“The beholder’s share” is what Gombrich [1961] famously and evocatively termed this memory-based contribution to the perception of art.) Naturally, both the beauty and the fragility of the method stem from the fact that different viewers bring different preconceptions and imagery to bear. Leroy’s critic saw only “palette-scrapings on a dirty canvas.” Legend has it that, upon viewing a particularly untamed (by the standards of the day) sunset by the pre-impressionist J.M.W. Turner, a young woman remarked, “I never saw a sunset like that, Mr. Turner.