Categorical Perception - Brain Basis

Brain Basis

Neural data provide correlates of CP and of learning. Differences between event-related potentials recorded from the brain have been found to be correlated with differences in the perceived category of the stimulus viewed by the subject. Neural imaging studies have shown that these effects are localized and even lateralized to certain brain regions in subjects who have successfully learned the category, and are absent in subjects who have not.

Categorical perception is identified with the left prefrontal cortex with this showing such perception for speech units while this is not by posterior areas earlier in their processing such as areas in the left superior temporal gyrus.

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