MePMoS Theory: Explaining Neural Timing Delays in Human Object Recognition with Rotation and Scaling

Object recognition is an unsolved neurophysics problem. How does the human brain robustly recognize familiar objects, regardless of changes in orientation or size? The MePMoS Model uses timing delays in brain processing to explain how the human brain can recognize visual information, independent of orientation or size. We propose that the brain uses internal coordinate transformations, whereby the magnitude of the required coordinate shift correlates with the additional time required for conscious brain processing of the visual stimulus. Additionally, this timing delay can be used by the brain to encode the object’s spatial information for conscious perception.

Here, we show experimental evidence for MePMoS theory, whereby human reaction time for recognizing scaled and rotated objects positively correlates with the degree by which the object is altered from its learned spatial representation. This work builds on previous results from Dr. Arisaka’s Elegant Mind Club at UCLA, where an intermediate size (or zero rotation) stimulus yields fastest reaction time, and reaction time symmetrically linearly increases, depending on additional spatial changes to the stimulus. Results and interpretations are discussed.