We conducted a cross-sectional study of radiologists, who, in addition to their knowledge of disease processes, have documented visual expertise in detecting features of radiographic images (e.g., Sowden et al. 2000).
The proposed models align with explanations of the dissociation between facial identification and intact object classification as a difference in the level of visual expertise needed [39], [40].
VL-PI was designed to teach visual expertise in plant recognition (Curby and Gauthier, 2010).
Visual expertise in discriminating fine differences among a group of similar objects can be obtained through extensive long-term training.
In their overview of visual expertise research, Reingold and Sheridan (2011, p. 533) attribute the superior performance of experts to their "superior encoding of domain related configurations".
This demonstrates that the left-lateralized topographic effect of reading-related visual expertise in the N170 does not generalize well to pseudowords.
It is suggested that the visual expertise in discriminating a particular group of objects is based on the development of inferotemporal cells with monotonic response tuning over the discriminated objects.
To identify the changes that underlie the development of visual expertise in fine discrimination, we created a set of parametrically designed object stimuli and compared the stimulus selectivity of inferotemporal cells between two different training histories.
Even for these trials, where the groups' success at the task was matched (average d′ = 1.1 for novices and 1.09 for experts), activity in the FFA correlated with our behavioral measure of visual expertise, overall performance in the scanner (r = −0.50, p < 0.02).
Thus, neural substrates for the experience-dependent capability corresponding to visual expertise may exist in the inferotemporal cortex in monkeys (Gauthier et al., 2000; but also see Grill-Spector et al., 2004. The present study aimed to further reveal the neural bases of visual expertise.
