Faces, Bodies, Spiders, and Radios: How the Brain Represents Visual Objects

At a Glance Leadership President Provost Board of Trustees Legacy History & Milestones Historic Awards & Honors Caltech Archives Interactive History Map News Publications This is Caltech Caltech Magazine Periodic Table of Caltech Innovation and Impact Exploration and Achievement Directions Campus Maps Parking Tours Administrative Offices & Departments Academic Divisions Biology and Biological Engineering Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Engineering & Applied Science Geological & Planetary Sciences Humanities and Social Sciences Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy Jet Propulsion Laboratory Student Research Centers & Institutes Technology Transfer & Corporate Partnerships Sponsored Research Research Facilities Faculty Listing Undergraduate Studies Graduate Studies Online Education Executive Education Teaching, Learning, & Outreach Resources Registrar Catalog Academic Calendar Library International Offices Career Development Calendar Caltech Today Athletics & Recreation Public Programming / CaltechLive! Performing & Visual Arts Housing Dining Caltech Y Wellness Services Diversity Center Security Emergency Information When Plato set out to define what made a human a human, he settled on two primary characteristics: We do not have feathers, and we are bipedal (walking upright on two legs). Plato's characterization may not encompass all of what identifies a human, but his reduction of an object to its fundamental characteristics provides an example of a technique known as principal component analysis.