51
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Brissenden JA, Somers DC. Cortico-cerebellar networks for visual attention and working memory. Curr Opin Psychol 2019; 29:239-247. [PMID: 31202085 PMCID: PMC7256875 DOI: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2019.05.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 45] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/12/2019] [Revised: 05/03/2019] [Accepted: 05/14/2019] [Indexed: 01/22/2023]
Abstract
Cerebellar cortex, which is cytoarchitectonically homogenous, can be functionally differentiated by connectivity differences across the cerebral cortex. The cerebral cortical dorsal attention network exhibits strong, selective connectivity with a set of cerebellar circuits, including lobule VIIb/VIIIa. Recent findings demonstrate that lobule VIIb/VIIIa exhibits functional properties characteristic of the cortical dorsal attention network: task-specific activation; working memory load-dependent responses; and the representation of visuospatial location. Moreover, functional cortico-cerebellar subnetworks exhibit topographic specialization for different aspects of visual attentional processing. Thus, cerebellar lobule VIIb/VIIIa, rather than simply supporting motor functions, appears to be an integral part of the brain's visual attentional circuitry. More generally, these findings suggest that parallel cortico-cerebellar networks may play highly specific functional roles in a broad range of cognitive processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- James A Brissenden
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, 64 Cummington Mall, Boston, MA 02215, United States
| | - David C Somers
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, 64 Cummington Mall, Boston, MA 02215, United States.
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52
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Winawer J, Curtis C. Cerebellar Function: Multiple Topographic Maps of Visual Space. Curr Biol 2019; 29:R699-R702. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.06.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
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53
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Osher DE, Brissenden JA, Somers DC. Predicting an individual's dorsal attention network activity from functional connectivity fingerprints. J Neurophysiol 2019; 122:232-240. [PMID: 31066602 DOI: 10.1152/jn.00174.2019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
The cortical dorsal attention network (DAN) is a set of parietal and frontal regions that support a wide variety of attentionally demanding tasks. Whereas attentional deployment reliably drives DAN activity across subjects, there is a large degree of variation in the activation pattern in individual subjects. We hypothesize that a subject's own idiosyncratic pattern of cortical DAN activity can be predicted from that subject's own unique pattern of functional connectivity. By modeling task activation as a function of whole brain connectivity patterns, we are able to define the connectivity fingerprints for the frontal and parietal DAN, and use it to predict a subject's characteristic DAN activation pattern with high accuracy. These predictions outperform the standard group-average benchmark and predict a subject's own activation pattern above and beyond predictions from another subject's connectivity pattern. Thus an individual's distinctive connectivity pattern accounts for substantial variance in DAN functional responses. Last, we show that the set of connections that predict cortical DAN responses, the frontal and parietal DAN connectivity fingerprints, is predominantly composed of other coactive regions, including regions outside of the DAN including occipital and temporal visual cortices. These connectivity fingerprints represent defining computational characteristics of the DAN, delineating which voxels are or are not capable of exerting top-down attentional bias to other regions of the brain. NEW & NOTEWORTHY The dorsal attention network (DAN) is a set of regions in frontoparietal cortex that reliably activate during attentional tasks. We designed computational models that predict the degree of an individual's DAN activation using their resting-state connectivity pattern alone. This uncovered the connectivity fingerprints of the DAN, which define it so well that we can predict how a voxel will respond to an attentional task given only its pattern of connectivity, with outstanding accuracy.
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Affiliation(s)
- David E Osher
- Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University , Columbus, Ohio
| | - James A Brissenden
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University , Boston, Massachusetts
| | - David C Somers
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University , Boston, Massachusetts
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54
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Topographic Maps of Visual Space in the Human Cerebellum. Curr Biol 2019; 29:1689-1694.e3. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.04.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 49] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/09/2018] [Revised: 02/22/2019] [Accepted: 04/04/2019] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
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55
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Cona G, Scarpazza C. Where is the "where" in the brain? A meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies on spatial cognition. Hum Brain Mapp 2019; 40:1867-1886. [PMID: 30600568 PMCID: PMC6865398 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.24496] [Citation(s) in RCA: 63] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/17/2018] [Revised: 11/06/2018] [Accepted: 11/29/2018] [Indexed: 01/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Spatial representations are processed in the service of several different cognitive functions. The present study capitalizes on the Activation Likelihood Estimation (ALE) method of meta-analysis to identify: (a) the shared neural activations among spatial functions to reveal the "core" network of spatial processing; (b) the specific neural activations associated with each of these functions. Following PRISMA guidelines, a total of 133 fMRI and PET studies were included in the meta-analysis. The overall analysis showed that the core network of spatial processing comprises regions that are symmetrically distributed on both hemispheres and that include dorsal frontoparietal regions, presupplementary motor area, anterior insula, and frontal operculum. The specific analyses revealed the brain regions that are selectively recruited for each spatial function, such as the right temporoparietal junction for shift of spatial attention, the right parahippocampal gyrus, and the retrosplenial cortex for navigation and spatial long-term memory. The findings are integrated within a systematic review of the neuroimaging literature and a new neurocognitive model of spatial cognition is proposed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Giorgia Cona
- Department of General PsychologyUniversity of PaduaPaduaItaly
- Padova Neuroscience CenterUniversity of PaduaPaduaItaly
| | - Cristina Scarpazza
- Department of General PsychologyUniversity of PaduaPaduaItaly
- Department of Psychosis Studies, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & NeuroscienceKing's College Health Partners, King's College LondonLondonUnited Kingdom
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56
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Benson NC, Jamison KW, Arcaro MJ, Vu AT, Glasser MF, Coalson TS, Van Essen DC, Yacoub E, Ugurbil K, Winawer J, Kay K. The Human Connectome Project 7 Tesla retinotopy dataset: Description and population receptive field analysis. J Vis 2019; 18:23. [PMID: 30593068 PMCID: PMC6314247 DOI: 10.1167/18.13.23] [Citation(s) in RCA: 88] [Impact Index Per Article: 17.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/01/2023] Open
Abstract
About a quarter of human cerebral cortex is dedicated mainly to visual processing. The large-scale spatial organization of visual cortex can be measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while subjects view spatially modulated visual stimuli, also known as "retinotopic mapping." One of the datasets collected by the Human Connectome Project involved ultrahigh-field (7 Tesla) fMRI retinotopic mapping in 181 healthy young adults (1.6-mm resolution), yielding the largest freely available collection of retinotopy data. Here, we describe the experimental paradigm and the results of model-based analysis of the fMRI data. These results provide estimates of population receptive field position and size. Our analyses include both results from individual subjects as well as results obtained by averaging fMRI time series across subjects at each cortical and subcortical location and then fitting models. Both the group-average and individual-subject results reveal robust signals across much of the brain, including occipital, temporal, parietal, and frontal cortex as well as subcortical areas. The group-average results agree well with previously published parcellations of visual areas. In addition, split-half analyses show strong within-subject reliability, further demonstrating the high quality of the data. We make publicly available the analysis results for individual subjects and the group average, as well as associated stimuli and analysis code. These resources provide an opportunity for studying fine-scale individual variability in cortical and subcortical organization and the properties of high-resolution fMRI. In addition, they provide a set of observations that can be compared with other Human Connectome Project measures acquired in these same participants.
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Affiliation(s)
- Noah C Benson
- Department of Psychology and Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Keith W Jamison
- Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, Department of Radiology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.,Current address: Department of Radiology, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, USA
| | - Michael J Arcaro
- Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - An T Vu
- Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, Department of Radiology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.,Current address: Center for Imaging of Neurodegenerative Diseases, VA Healthcare System, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Matthew F Glasser
- Department of Neuroscience, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA.,Department of Radiology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA.,Department of Medicine, St. Luke's Hospital, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Timothy S Coalson
- Department of Neuroscience, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - David C Van Essen
- Department of Neuroscience, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Essa Yacoub
- Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, Department of Radiology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
| | - Kamil Ugurbil
- Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, Department of Radiology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
| | - Jonathan Winawer
- Department of Psychology and Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Kendrick Kay
- Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, Department of Radiology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
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57
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van Es DM, Theeuwes J, Knapen T. Spatial sampling in human visual cortex is modulated by both spatial and feature-based attention. eLife 2018; 7:e36928. [PMID: 30526848 PMCID: PMC6286128 DOI: 10.7554/elife.36928] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/26/2018] [Accepted: 11/13/2018] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Spatial attention changes the sampling of visual space. Behavioral studies suggest that feature-based attention modulates this resampling to optimize the attended feature's sampling. We investigate this hypothesis by estimating spatial sampling in visual cortex while independently varying both feature-based and spatial attention. Our results show that spatial and feature-based attention interacted: resampling of visual space depended on both the attended location and feature (color vs. temporal frequency). This interaction occurred similarly throughout visual cortex, regardless of an area's overall feature preference. However, the interaction did depend on spatial sampling properties of voxels that prefer the attended feature. These findings are parsimoniously explained by variations in the precision of an attentional gain field. Our results demonstrate that the deployment of spatial attention is tailored to the spatial sampling properties of units that are sensitive to the attended feature.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel Marten van Es
- Behavioural and Movement SciencesVrije Universiteit AmsterdamAmsterdamThe Netherlands
| | - Jan Theeuwes
- Behavioural and Movement SciencesVrije Universiteit AmsterdamAmsterdamThe Netherlands
| | - Tomas Knapen
- Behavioural and Movement SciencesVrije Universiteit AmsterdamAmsterdamThe Netherlands
- Spinoza Centre for NeuroimagingRoyal Academy of SciencesAmsterdamThe Netherlands
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58
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Abstract
Human visual cortex is organized into multiple retinotopic maps. Characterizing the arrangement of these maps on the cortical surface is essential to many visual neuroscience studies. Typically, maps are obtained by voxel-wise analysis of fMRI data. This method, while useful, maps only a portion of the visual field and is limited by measurement noise and subjective assessment of boundaries. We developed a novel Bayesian mapping approach which combines observation–a subject’s retinotopic measurements from small amounts of fMRI time–with a prior–a learned retinotopic atlas. This process automatically draws areal boundaries, corrects discontinuities in the measured maps, and predicts validation data more accurately than an atlas alone or independent datasets alone. This new method can be used to improve the accuracy of retinotopic mapping, to analyze large fMRI datasets automatically, and to quantify differences in map properties as a function of health, development and natural variation between individuals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Noah C Benson
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, United States
| | - Jonathan Winawer
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, United States.,Center for Neural Sciences, New York University, New York, United States
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59
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Brissenden JA, Tobyne SM, Osher DE, Levin EJ, Halko MA, Somers DC. Topographic Cortico-cerebellar Networks Revealed by Visual Attention and Working Memory. Curr Biol 2018; 28:3364-3372.e5. [PMID: 30344119 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2018.08.059] [Citation(s) in RCA: 60] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/18/2018] [Revised: 08/03/2018] [Accepted: 08/29/2018] [Indexed: 12/29/2022]
Abstract
Substantial portions of the cerebellum appear to support non-motor functions; however, previous investigations of cerebellar involvement in cognition have revealed only a coarse degree of specificity. Although somatotopic maps have been observed within cerebellum, similar precision within cortico-cerebellar networks supporting non-motor functions has not previously been reported. Here, we find that human cerebellar lobule VIIb/VIIIa differentially codes key aspects of visuospatial cognition. Ipsilateral visuospatial representations were observed during both a visual working memory and an attentionally demanding visual receptive field-mapping fMRI task paradigm. Moreover, within lobule VIIb/VIIIa, we observed a functional dissociation between spatial coding and visual working memory processing. Visuospatial representations were found in the dorsomedial portion of lobule VIIb/VIIIa, and load-dependent visual working memory processing was shifted ventrolaterally. A similar functional gradient for spatial versus load processing was found in posterior parietal cortex. This cerebral cortical organization was well predicted by functional connectivity with spatial and load regions of cerebellar lobule VIIb/VIIIa. Collectively, our findings indicate that recruitment by visuospatial attentional functions within cerebellar lobule VIIb/VIIIa is highly specific. Furthermore, the topographic arrangement of these functions is mirrored in frontal and parietal cortex. These findings motivate a closer examination of cortico-cerebellar functional specialization across a broad range of cognitive domains.
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Affiliation(s)
- James A Brissenden
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, 64 Cummington Mall, Boston, MA 02215, USA
| | - Sean M Tobyne
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, 64 Cummington Mall, Boston, MA 02215, USA
| | - David E Osher
- Department of Psychology, Ohio State University, 1835 Neil Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
| | - Emily J Levin
- Department of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences, Brown University, 190 Thayer Street, Providence, RI 02912, USA
| | - Mark A Halko
- Berenson-Allen Center for Noninvasive Brain Stimulation, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, 330 Brookline Avenue, Boston, MA 02215, USA
| | - David C Somers
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, 64 Cummington Mall, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
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60
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Reteig LC, Knapen T, Roelofs FJFW, Ridderinkhof KR, Slagter HA. No Evidence That Frontal Eye Field tDCS Affects Latency or Accuracy of Prosaccades. Front Neurosci 2018; 12:617. [PMID: 30233300 PMCID: PMC6135207 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2018.00617] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/21/2018] [Accepted: 08/14/2018] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) may be used to directly affect neural activity from outside of the skull. However, its exact physiological mechanisms remain elusive, particularly when applied to new brain areas. The frontal eye field (FEF) has rarely been targeted with tDCS, even though it plays a crucial role in control of overt and covert spatial attention. Here, we investigate whether tDCS over the FEF can affect the latency and accuracy of saccadic eye movements. Twenty-six participants performed a prosaccade task in which they made eye movements to a sudden-onset eccentric visual target (lateral saccades). After each lateral saccade, they made an eye movement back to the center (center saccades). The task was administered before, during, and after anodal or cathodal tDCS over the FEF, in a randomized, double-blind, within-subject design. One previous study (Kanai et al., 2012) found that anodal tDCS over the FEF decreased the latency of saccades contralateral to the stimulated hemisphere. We did not find the same effect: neither anodal nor cathodal tDCS influenced the latency of lateral saccades. tDCS also did not affect accuracy of lateral saccades (saccade endpoint deviation and saccade endpoint variability). For center saccades, we found some differences between the anodal and cathodal sessions, but these were not consistent across analyses (latency, endpoint variability), or were already present before tDCS onset (endpoint deviation). We tried to improve on the design of Kanai et al. (2012) in several ways, including the tDCS duration and electrode montage, which could explain the discrepant results. Our findings add to a growing number of null results, which have sparked concerns that tDCS outcomes are highly variable. Future studies should aim to establish the boundary conditions for FEF-tDCS to be effective, in addition to increasing sample size and adding additional controls such as a sham condition. At present, we conclude that it is unclear whether eye movements or other aspects of spatial attention can be affected through tDCS of the frontal eye fields.
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Affiliation(s)
- Leon C. Reteig
- Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Amsterdam Brain and Cognition, Amsterdam, Netherlands
| | - Tomas Knapen
- Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Institute for Brain and Behavior Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
| | | | - K. Richard Ridderinkhof
- Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Amsterdam Brain and Cognition, Amsterdam, Netherlands
| | - Heleen A. Slagter
- Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Amsterdam Brain and Cognition, Amsterdam, Netherlands
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61
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Winlove CI, Milton F, Ranson J, Fulford J, MacKisack M, Macpherson F, Zeman A. The neural correlates of visual imagery: A co-ordinate-based meta-analysis. Cortex 2018; 105:4-25. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2017.12.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 63] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/04/2017] [Revised: 12/11/2017] [Accepted: 12/18/2017] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
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62
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Revealing Detail along the Visual Hierarchy: Neural Clustering Preserves Acuity from V1 to V4. Neuron 2018; 98:417-428.e3. [PMID: 29606580 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2018.03.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/26/2017] [Revised: 02/06/2018] [Accepted: 03/05/2018] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
How primates perceive objects along with their detailed features remains a mystery. This ability to make fine visual discriminations depends upon a high-acuity analysis of spatial frequency (SF) along the visual hierarchy from V1 to inferotemporal cortex. By studying the transformation of SF across macaque parafoveal V1, V2, and V4, we discovered SF-selective functional domains in V4 encoding higher SFs up to 12 cycles/°. These intermittent higher-SF-selective domains, surrounded by domains encoding lower SFs, violate the inverse relationship between SF preference and retinal eccentricity. The neural activities of higher- and lower-SF domains correspond to local and global features, respectively, of the same stimuli. Neural response latencies in high-SF domains are around 10 ms later than in low-SF domains, consistent with the coarse-to-fine nature of perception. Thus, our finding of preserved resolution from V1 into V4, separated both spatially and temporally, may serve as a connecting link for detailed object representation.
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63
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Liu S, Tse PU, Cavanagh P. Meridian interference reveals neural locus of motion-induced position shifts. J Neurophysiol 2018. [PMID: 29513148 DOI: 10.1152/jn.00876.2017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
When a Gabor patch moves along a path in one direction while its internal texture drifts orthogonally to this path, it can appear to deviate from its physical path by 45° or more. This double-drift illusion is different from other motion-induced position shift effects in several ways: it has an integration period of over a second; the illusory displacement that accumulates over a second or more is orthogonal to rather than along the motion path; the perceptual deviations are much larger; and they have little or no effect on eye movements to the target. In this study we investigated the underlying neural mechanisms of the motion integration and position processing for this double-drift stimulus by testing possible anatomical constraints on its magnitude. We found that the illusion was reduced at the vertical and horizontal meridians when the perceptual path would cross or be driven toward the meridian, but not at other locations or other motion directions. The disruption of the accumulation of the position error at both the horizontal and vertical meridians suggests a central role of quadrantic areas in the generation of this type of motion-induced position shift. NEW & NOTEWORTHY The remarkably strong double-drift illusion is disrupted at both the vertical and horizontal meridians. We propose that this finding is the behavioral consequence of the anatomical gaps at both meridians, suggesting that neural areas with quadrantic representations (e.g., V2, V3) are the initial locus of this motion-induced position shift. This result rules out V1 as the source of the illusion because it has an anatomical break only at the vertical meridian.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sirui Liu
- Department of Psychological and Brian Sciences, Dartmouth College , Hanover, New Hampshire
| | - Peter U Tse
- Department of Psychological and Brian Sciences, Dartmouth College , Hanover, New Hampshire
| | - Patrick Cavanagh
- Department of Psychological and Brian Sciences, Dartmouth College , Hanover, New Hampshire.,Department of Psychology, Glendon College , Toronto, Ontario , Canada
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64
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Sprague TC, Itthipuripat S, Vo VA, Serences JT. Dissociable signatures of visual salience and behavioral relevance across attentional priority maps in human cortex. J Neurophysiol 2018; 119:2153-2165. [PMID: 29488841 DOI: 10.1152/jn.00059.2018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Computational models posit that visual attention is guided by activity within spatial maps that index the image-computable salience and the behavioral relevance of objects in the scene. These spatial maps are theorized to be instantiated as activation patterns across a series of retinotopic visual regions in occipital, parietal, and frontal cortex. Whereas previous research has identified sensitivity to either the behavioral relevance or the image-computable salience of different scene elements, the simultaneous influence of these factors on neural "attentional priority maps" in human cortex is not well understood. We tested the hypothesis that visual salience and behavioral relevance independently impact the activation profile across retinotopically organized cortical regions by quantifying attentional priority maps measured in human brains using functional MRI while participants attended one of two differentially salient stimuli. We found that the topography of activation in priority maps, as reflected in the modulation of region-level patterns of population activity, independently indexed the physical salience and behavioral relevance of each scene element. Moreover, salience strongly impacted activation patterns in early visual areas, whereas later visual areas were dominated by relevance. This suggests that prioritizing spatial locations relies on distributed neural codes containing graded representations of salience and relevance across the visual hierarchy. NEW & NOTEWORTHY We tested a theory which supposes that neural systems represent scene elements according to both their salience and their relevance in a series of "priority maps" by measuring functional MRI activation patterns across human brains and reconstructing spatial maps of the visual scene. We found that different regions indexed either the salience or the relevance of scene items, but not their interaction, suggesting an evolving representation of salience and relevance across different visual areas.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas C Sprague
- Department of Psychology, New York University , New York, New York.,Neurosciences Graduate Program, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California
| | - Sirawaj Itthipuripat
- Neurosciences Graduate Program, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California.,Learning Institute, King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi, Bangmod, Thung Kru, Bangkok , Thailand.,Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University , Nashville, Tennessee
| | - Vy A Vo
- Neurosciences Graduate Program, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California
| | - John T Serences
- Neurosciences Graduate Program, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California.,Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California.,Kavli Institute for Brain and Mind, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California
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65
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Rahmati M, Saber GT, Curtis CE. Population Dynamics of Early Visual Cortex during Working Memory. J Cogn Neurosci 2017; 30:219-233. [PMID: 28984524 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_01196] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
Abstract
Although the content of working memory (WM) can be decoded from the spatial patterns of brain activity in early visual cortex, how populations encode WM representations remains unclear. Here, we address this limitation by using a model-based approach that reconstructs the feature encoded by population activity measured with fMRI. Using this approach, we could successfully reconstruct the locations of memory-guided saccade goals based on the pattern of activity in visual cortex during a memory delay. We could reconstruct the saccade goal even when we dissociated the visual stimulus from the saccade goal using a memory-guided antisaccade procedure. By comparing the spatiotemporal population dynamics, we find that the representations in visual cortex are stable but can also evolve from a representation of a remembered visual stimulus to a prospective goal. Moreover, because the representation of the antisaccade goal cannot be the result of bottom-up visual stimulation, it must be evoked by top-down signals presumably originating from frontal and/or parietal cortex. Indeed, we find that trial-by-trial fluctuations in delay period activity in frontal and parietal cortex correlate with the precision with which our model reconstructed the maintained saccade goal based on the pattern of activity in visual cortex. Therefore, the population dynamics in visual cortex encode WM representations, and these representations can be sculpted by top-down signals from frontal and parietal cortex.
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66
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Mikellidou K, Kurzawski JW, Frijia F, Montanaro D, Greco V, Burr DC, Morrone MC. Area Prostriata in the Human Brain. Curr Biol 2017; 27:3056-3060.e3. [PMID: 28966090 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2017.08.065] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/06/2017] [Revised: 05/31/2017] [Accepted: 08/25/2017] [Indexed: 01/28/2023]
Abstract
Area prostriata is a cortical area at the fundus of the calcarine sulcus, described anatomically in humans [1-5] and other primates [6-9]. It is lightly myelinated and lacks the clearly defined six-layer structure evident throughout the cerebral cortex, with a thinner layer 4 and thicker layer 2 [10], characteristic of limbic cortex [11]. In the marmoset and rhesus monkey, area prostriata has cortical connections with MT+ [12], the cingulate motor cortex [8], the auditory cortex [13], the orbitofrontal cortex, and the frontal polar cortices [14]. Here we use functional magnetic resonance together with a wide-field projection system to study its functional properties in humans. With population receptive field mapping [15], we show that area prostriata has a complete representation of the visual field, clearly distinct from the adjacent area V1. As in the marmoset, the caudal-dorsal border of human prostriata-abutting V1-represents the far peripheral visual field, with eccentricities decreasing toward its rostral boundary. Area prostriata responds strongly to very fast motion, greater than 500°/s. The functional properties of area prostriata suggest that it may serve to alert the brain quickly to fast visual events, particularly in the peripheral visual field.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kyriaki Mikellidou
- Department of Translational Research on New Technologies in Medicine and Surgery, University of Pisa, via Savi 10, 56126 Pisa, Italy.
| | - Jan W Kurzawski
- Stella Maris Scientific Institute, Viale del Tirreno, 331, 56128 Calambrone, Italy; Department of Neuroscience, Psychology, Pharmacology and Child Health, University of Florence, Via di San Salvi 12, 50139 Florence, Italy
| | - Francesca Frijia
- Unit of Neuroradiology, Fondazione CNR/Regione Toscana G. Monasterio, Via Giuseppe Moruzzi 1, 56124 Pisa, Italy
| | - Domenico Montanaro
- Unit of Neuroradiology, Fondazione CNR/Regione Toscana G. Monasterio, Via Giuseppe Moruzzi 1, 56124 Pisa, Italy
| | - Vincenzo Greco
- Istituto Nazionale di Ottica, CNR, Largo Enrico Fermi 6, 50125 Florence, Italy
| | - David C Burr
- Department of Neuroscience, Psychology, Pharmacology and Child Health, University of Florence, Via di San Salvi 12, 50139 Florence, Italy; Neuroscience Institute, CNR, Via Giuseppe Moruzzi 1, 56124 Pisa, Italy
| | - Maria Concetta Morrone
- Department of Translational Research on New Technologies in Medicine and Surgery, University of Pisa, via Savi 10, 56126 Pisa, Italy; Stella Maris Scientific Institute, Viale del Tirreno, 331, 56128 Calambrone, Italy
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Sensory-Biased and Multiple-Demand Processing in Human Lateral Frontal Cortex. J Neurosci 2017; 37:8755-8766. [PMID: 28821668 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.0660-17.2017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/07/2017] [Revised: 07/27/2017] [Accepted: 08/01/2017] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
The functionality of much of human lateral frontal cortex (LFC) has been characterized as "multiple demand" (MD) as these regions appear to support a broad range of cognitive tasks. In contrast to this domain-general account, recent evidence indicates that portions of LFC are consistently selective for sensory modality. Michalka et al. (2015) reported two bilateral regions that are biased for visual attention, superior precentral sulcus (sPCS) and inferior precentral sulcus (iPCS), interleaved with two bilateral regions that are biased for auditory attention, transverse gyrus intersecting precentral sulcus (tgPCS) and caudal inferior frontal sulcus (cIFS). In the present study, we use fMRI to examine both the multiple-demand and sensory-bias hypotheses within caudal portions of human LFC (both men and women participated). Using visual and auditory 2-back tasks, we replicate the finding of two bilateral visual-biased and two bilateral auditory-biased LFC regions, corresponding to sPCS and iPCS and to tgPCS and cIFS, and demonstrate high within-subject reliability of these regions over time and across tasks. In addition, we assess MD responsiveness using BOLD signal recruitment and multi-task activation indices. In both, we find that the two visual-biased regions, sPCS and iPCS, exhibit stronger MD responsiveness than do the auditory-biased LFC regions, tgPCS and cIFS; however, neither reaches the degree of MD responsiveness exhibited by dorsal anterior cingulate/presupplemental motor area or by anterior insula. These results reconcile two competing views of LFC by demonstrating the coexistence of sensory specialization and MD functionality, especially in visual-biased LFC structures.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Lateral frontal cortex (LFC) is known to play a number of critical roles in supporting human cognition; however, the functional organization of LFC remains controversial. The "multiple demand" (MD) hypothesis suggests that LFC regions provide domain-general support for cognition. Recent evidence challenges the MD view by demonstrating that a preference for sensory modality, vision or audition, defines four discrete LFC regions. Here, the sensory-biased LFC results are reproduced using a new task, and MD responsiveness of these regions is tested. The two visual-biased regions exhibit MD behavior, whereas the auditory-biased regions have no more than weak MD responses. These findings help to reconcile two competing views of LFC functional organization.
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