Visual homogeneity computations in the brain enable solving generic visual tasks

Many visual tasks involve looking for specific object features. But we also often solve generic tasks where we look for a specific property, such as finding an odd item, deciding if two items are same, or if an object has symmetry. How do we solve such tasks? Building on simple neural rules, we show that displays with repeating elements can be distinguished from heterogeneous displays using a property we denote visual homogeneity. In behavior, visual homogeneity predicted response times on visual search and symmetry tasks. Brain imaging during these tasks revealed that visual homogeneity in both tasks is highly localized to a region in the object-selective cortex. Thus, a novel image property, visual homogeneity, is encoded in a localized brain region, to solve generic visual tasks.