The brain has separate systems for solid objects and oozing fluids, MIT finds

In the study, the neuroscientists discovered that the human brain uses different specialized regions to visually process solid objects versus non-solid substances. The study, which was published on July 31 in the Current Biology journal is the first to map this distinction onto specific areas in the brain's visual cortex.

Before now, researchers have known that the brain does have specialized regions for the recognition of 3D objects. The new study takes it a step deeper, revealing that both the brain's shape-recognition pathway and the physics-analyzing pathway harbor subregions that respond preferentially to solid object or flowing substances, which the researchers called “things” and “stuff”.

For the study, the researchers used a software made for visual effect artists to make over 100 video clips of things and stuff interacting with the environment. They showed these videos to participants of the research, while using fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) to scan their visual cortex. They found that both the region of the brain involved in shape recognition and the one responsible for analyzing physical properties responded to stuff and things — showing there are subregions specialized for each kind of object.

This finding could provide a blueprint for the development of more sophisticated AI robots. Much like the brain, AI and robotic vision systems could be designed with separate computational models for solids and fluids, allowing them to better understand and interact with their physical surroundings.