{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,29]],"date-time":"2026-09-29T16:43:28Z","timestamp":1790700208677,"version":"4.1.0"},"update-to":[{"DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pcbi.1013959","type":"new_version","label":"New version","source":"publisher","updated":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,18]],"date-time":"2026-02-18T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1771372800000}}],"reference-count":110,"publisher":"Public Library of Science (PLoS)","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,11]],"date-time":"2026-02-11T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1770768000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Project 111","award":["B18015"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["B18015"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.ploscompbiol.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["PLoS Comput Biol"],"abstract":"<jats:p>How transform-invariant visual representations of objects and faces are learned in the ventral visual cortical pathway is a massive computational problem. Here we describe key advances towards a biologically plausible four-layer network that performs these computations from the primary visual cortex to the inferior temporal visual cortex. The architecture is a four-layer competitive network with layer-to-layer convergence using a short-term memory trace local synaptic learning rule to associate transforming inputs from an object during natural viewing. The key advances towards biological plausibility include: (1) a synaptic modification rule including long-term depression dependent on synaptic strength instead of artificial synaptic weight normalization; (2) limiting the strength of synapses promotes distributed weights, improving transform-invariant learning; (3) reducing the ability of low firing rate neurons to participate in learning analogous to the NMDA receptor non-linearity can increase the storage capacity; (4) demonstrated network scalability towards high capacity. These advances have many implications for better understanding of cortical computations. These advances in biological plausibility of this approach are compared with artificial networks of the same ventral cortical processing stream that do not use a local synaptic learning rule and are less biologically plausible, and implications for AI models are described.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pcbi.1013959","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,11]],"date-time":"2026-02-11T18:41:46Z","timestamp":1770835306000},"page":"e1013959","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pcbi.corrections_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["Invariant visual object and face learning in the ventral cortical visual pathway: A biologically plausible model"],"prefix":"10.1371","volume":"22","author":[{"given":"Chenfei","family":"Zhang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1647-6698","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Edmund T.","family":"Rolls","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jianfeng","family":"Feng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"340","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,11]]},"reference":[{"issue":"3","key":"pcbi.1013959.ref001","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"329","DOI":"10.1007\/BF00239352","article-title":"Visual neurones responsive to faces in the monkey temporal cortex","volume":"47","author":"DI Perrett","year":"1982","journal-title":"Exp Brain Res"},{"issue":"4","key":"pcbi.1013959.ref002","first-page":"209","article-title":"Neurons in the cortex of the temporal lobe and in the amygdala of the monkey with responses selective for faces","volume":"3","author":"ET Rolls","year":"1984","journal-title":"Hum Neurobiol"},{"issue":"6","key":"pcbi.1013959.ref003","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"510","DOI":"10.1093\/cercor\/8.6.510","article-title":"View-invariant representations of familiar objects by neurons in the inferior temporal visual cortex","volume":"8","author":"MC Booth","year":"1998","journal-title":"Cereb Cortex"},{"key":"pcbi.1013959.ref004","article-title":"Temporal lobe cells of the monkey with visual responses selective for faces","author":"DI Perrett","year":"1979","journal-title":"Neurosci Lett"},{"key":"pcbi.1013959.ref005","first-page":"51","article-title":"Face neurons.","volume-title":"The Oxford Handbook of Face Perception","author":"ET. 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