Neural codes of seeing architectural styles

Abstract

Images of iconic buildings, such as the CN Tower, instantly transport us to specific places, such as Toronto. Despite the substantial impact of architectural design on people’s visual experience of built environments, we know little about its neural representation in the human brain. In the present study, we have found patterns of neural activity associated with specific architectural styles in several high-level visual brain regions, but not in primary visual cortex (V1). This finding suggests that the neural correlates of the visual perception of architectural styles stem from style-specific complex visual structure beyond the simple features computed in V1. Surprisingly, the network of brain regions representing architectural styles included the fusiform face area (FFA) in addition to several scene-selective regions. Hierarchical clustering of error patterns further revealed that the FFA participated to a much larger extent in the neural encoding of architectural styles than entry-level scene categories. We conclude that the FFA is involved in fine-grained neural encoding of scenes at a subordinate-level, in our case, architectural styles of buildings. This study for the first time shows how the human visual system encodes visual aspects of architecture, one of the predominant and longest-lasting artefacts of human culture.

Buildings, Beauty, and the Brain: A Neuroscience of Architectural Experience

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Emerging Novel Metal Electrodes for Photovoltaic Applications

“…The degeneration of transparent electrode will be accelerated with metal NWs exposed to light irradiation, high temperature, and current flow. [194][195][196][197][198][199][200][201][202] The low thermal stability of metal NW network will limit their application in the devices needing high-temperature annealing process. Joule heat will be generated when the transparent electrode is applied with electrical bias, which will affect the stability of metal NW network and is crucial to the performance of optoelectronic devices under operational condition.…”

Sliding Interconnection for Flexible Electronics with a Solution‐Processed Diffusion Barrier against a Corrosive Liquid Metal

“…A practical solution to cope with mechanical deformations such as bending, rolling, folding, and even stretching without sacrificing performance and functionality would be to integrate the islands of rigid electronic components on a soft substrate with flexible and stretchable electrodes, such as carbon-based materials (graphite, carbon nanofibers [CNFs], carbon nanotubes [CNTs], and graphene), conducting polymers (polyaniline and poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(4styrenesulfonate), which are hereinafter referred to as PANI and poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS), respectively), metallic nanowires, and their composites. [5,6] Despite long-standing efforts, the insufficient electrical conductivity and low environmental stability of these materials remain a challenge in the art, [7,8] and hence, metal electrodes with elaborately engineered geometries are still preferred for flexibility and stretchability, as shown in Figure 1a. [9][10][11][12] The importance of electrical interconnection to bridge the islands of stiff electronic parts with flexible and stretchable metal electrodes has become paramount in flexible and stretchable electronics.…”