Sustained multidimensionality of object representations as a scaffold for diverse behaviours
- 1The University of Queensland
Abstract
The human brain transforms a brief glance into a neural representation flexible enough to serve many behavioural goals. This flexibility may reflect multidimensional visual representations read out selectively across tasks, rather than goal-specific instantiation. Combining a large-scale EEG dataset with a behavioural battery of 12 tasks spanning 200 objects, including perceptual, categorical and social decisions, we tested how behaviours are supported by stimulus-evoked representations. Information relevant to 11 of 12 tasks was accessible in the neural signal, emerging early and overlapping in time. Orthogonal behavioural dimensions showed distinct temporal profiles, indicating a genuinely multidimensional representation. The neural code converged on a human-relatedness axis, while feature-level information remained accessible. Behavioural accessibility was thus broad but structured. Object familiarity alone was reliable in behaviour yet absent from the shared neural signal, revealing a limit on what a glance makes accessible. We propose that sustained, recurrent processing serves this broad behavioural accessibility.
Related
- Degraded neural representations foreshadow failures of sustained attention
- Reducing Occupational Exposure to Pesticides: Understanding the Preventive Behaviours of French Farmers
- Diurnal rhythmicity modulates self-blaming behaviours and neural processing of autobiographical guilt memories in the trait-like and state-like manner
- Rightward Saccades Distort the Scaffold of Spatial Working Memory in ADHD
- Scaffold-Constrained Generative Design Overcomes Failure Modes in Computational Protein Engineering
BibTeX
@misc{robinson2026sustained,
title = {{Sustained multidimensionality of object representations as a scaffold for diverse behaviours}},
author = {A. K. Robinson and S. M. Shatek and T. Grootswagers},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.64898/2026.09.17.752507},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.17.752507v1},
note = {CC BY-NC},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Sustained multidimensionality of object representations as a scaffold for diverse behaviours
AU - A. K. Robinson
AU - S. M. Shatek
AU - T. Grootswagers
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/17
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.09.17.752507
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.17.752507v1
AB - The human brain transforms a brief glance into a neural representation flexible enough to serve many behavioural goals. This flexibility may reflect multidimensional visual representations read out selectively across tasks, rather than goal-specific instantiation. Combining a large-scale EEG dataset with a behavioural battery of 12 tasks spanning 200 objects, including perceptual, categorical and social decisions, we tested how behaviours are supported by stimulus-evoked representations. Information relevant to 11 of 12 tasks was accessible in the neural signal, emerging early and overlapping in time. Orthogonal behavioural dimensions showed distinct temporal profiles, indicating a genuinely multidimensional representation. The neural code converged on a human-relatedness axis, while feature-level information remained accessible. Behavioural accessibility was thus broad but structured. Object familiarity alone was reliable in behaviour yet absent from the shared neural signal, revealing a limit on what a glance makes accessible. We propose that sustained, recurrent processing serves this broad behavioural accessibility.
ER -