101
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Carvalho J, Invernizzi A, Martins J, Renken RJ, Cornelissen FW. Local neuroplasticity in adult glaucomatous visual cortex. Sci Rep 2022; 12:21981. [PMID: 36539453 PMCID: PMC9767937 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-24709-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/03/2022] [Accepted: 11/18/2022] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
The degree to which the adult human visual cortex retains the ability to functionally adapt to damage at the level of the eye remains ill-understood. Previous studies on cortical neuroplasticity primarily focused on the consequences of foveal visual field defects (VFD), yet these findings may not generalize to peripheral defects such as occur in glaucoma. Moreover, recent findings on neuroplasticity are often based on population receptive field (pRF) mapping, but interpreting these results is complicated in the absence of appropriate control conditions. Here, we used fMRI-based neural modeling to assess putative changes in pRFs associated with glaucomatous VFD. We compared the fMRI-signals and pRF in glaucoma participants to those of controls with case-matched simulated VFD. We found that the amplitude of the fMRI-signal is reduced in glaucoma compared to control participants and correlated with disease severity. Furthermore, while coarse retinotopic structure is maintained in all participants with glaucoma, we observed local pRF shifts and enlargements in early visual areas, relative to control participants. These differences suggest that the adult brain retains some degree of local neuroplasticity. This finding has translational relevance, as it is consistent with VFD masking, which prevents glaucoma patients from noticing their VFD and seeking timely treatment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joana Carvalho
- grid.4494.d0000 0000 9558 4598Laboratory of Experimental Ophthalmology, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands ,grid.421010.60000 0004 0453 9636Pre-Clinical MRI Laboratory, Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown, Avenida de Brasilia, 1400-038 Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Azzurra Invernizzi
- grid.4494.d0000 0000 9558 4598Laboratory of Experimental Ophthalmology, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands ,grid.59734.3c0000 0001 0670 2351Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY USA
| | - Joana Martins
- grid.4494.d0000 0000 9558 4598Laboratory of Experimental Ophthalmology, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Remco J. Renken
- grid.4494.d0000 0000 9558 4598Laboratory of Experimental Ophthalmology, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands ,grid.4494.d0000 0000 9558 4598Cognitive Neuroscience Center, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Frans W. Cornelissen
- grid.4494.d0000 0000 9558 4598Laboratory of Experimental Ophthalmology, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
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102
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Steel A, Garcia BD, Silson EH, Robertson CE. Evaluating the efficacy of multi-echo ICA denoising on model-based fMRI. Neuroimage 2022; 264:119723. [PMID: 36328274 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119723] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/06/2022] [Revised: 09/30/2022] [Accepted: 10/30/2022] [Indexed: 11/05/2022] Open
Abstract
fMRI is an indispensable tool for neuroscience investigation, but this technique is limited by multiple sources of physiological and measurement noise. These noise sources are particularly problematic for analysis techniques that require high signal-to-noise ratio for stable model fitting, such as voxel-wise modeling. Multi-echo data acquisition in combination with echo-time dependent ICA denoising (ME-ICA) represents one promising strategy to mitigate physiological and hardware-related noise sources as well as motion-related artifacts. However, most studies employing ME-ICA to date are resting-state fMRI studies, and therefore we have a limited understanding of the impact of ME-ICA on complex task or model-based fMRI paradigms. Here, we addressed this knowledge gap by comparing data quality and model fitting performance of data acquired during a visual population receptive field (pRF) mapping (N = 13 participants) experiment after applying one of three preprocessing procedures: ME-ICA, optimally combined multi-echo data without ICA-denoising, and typical single echo processing. As expected, multi-echo fMRI improved temporal signal-to-noise compared to single echo fMRI, with ME-ICA amplifying the improvement compared to optimal combination alone. However, unexpectedly, this boost in temporal signal-to-noise did not directly translate to improved model fitting performance: compared to single echo acquisition, model fitting was only improved after ICA-denoising. Specifically, compared to single echo acquisition, ME-ICA resulted in improved variance explained by our pRF model throughout the visual system, including anterior regions of the temporal and parietal lobes where SNR is typically low, while optimal combination without ICA did not. ME-ICA also improved reliability of parameter estimates compared to single echo and optimally combined multi-echo data without ICA-denoising. Collectively, these results suggest that ME-ICA is effective for denoising task-based fMRI data for modeling analyzes and maintains the integrity of the original data. Therefore, ME-ICA may be beneficial for complex fMRI experiments, including voxel-wise modeling and naturalistic paradigms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adam Steel
- Department of Psychology and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, 3 Maynard Street, Hanover, NH 03755, US.
| | - Brenda D Garcia
- Department of Psychology and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, 3 Maynard Street, Hanover, NH 03755, US
| | - Edward H Silson
- Psychology, School of Philosophy, Psychology, and Language Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH8 9JZ, UK
| | - Caroline E Robertson
- Department of Psychology and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, 3 Maynard Street, Hanover, NH 03755, US
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103
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Invernizzi A, Haak KV, Carvalho JC, Renken RJ, Cornelissen FW. Bayesian connective field modeling using a Markov Chain Monte Carlo approach. Neuroimage 2022; 264:119688. [PMID: 36280097 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119688] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/17/2021] [Revised: 09/17/2022] [Accepted: 10/14/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
The majority of neurons in the human brain process signals from neurons elsewhere in the brain. Connective Field (CF) modelling is a biologically-grounded method to describe this essential aspect of the brain's circuitry. It allows characterizing the response of a population of neurons in terms of the activity in another part of the brain. CF modelling translates the concept of the receptive field (RF) into the domain of connectivity by assessing, at the voxel level, the spatial dependency between signals in distinct cortical visual field areas. Thus, the approach enables to characterize the functional cortical circuitry of the human cortex. While already very useful, the present CF modelling approach has some intrinsic limitations due to the fact that it only estimates the model's explained variance and not the probability distribution associated with the estimated parameters. If we could resolve this, CF modelling would lend itself much better for statistical comparisons at the level of single voxels and individuals. This is important when trying to gain a detailed understanding of the neurobiology and pathophysiology of the visual cortex, notably in rare cases. To enable this, we present a Bayesian approach to CF modeling (bCF). Using a Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) procedure, it estimates the posterior probability distribution underlying the CF parameters. Based on this, bCF quantifies, at the voxel level, the uncertainty associated with each parameter estimate. This information can be used in various ways to increase confidence in the CF model predictions. We applied bCF to BOLD responses recorded in the early human visual cortex using 3T fMRI. We estimated both the CF parameters and their associated uncertainties and show they are only weakly correlated. Moreover, we show how bCF facilitates the use of effect size (beta) as a data-driven parameter that can be used to select the most reliable voxels for further analysis. Finally, to further illustrate the functionality gained by bCF, we apply it to perform a voxel-level comparison of a single, circular symmetric, Gaussian versus a Difference-of-Gaussian model. We conclude that our bCF framework provides a comprehensive tool to study human functional cortical circuitry in health and disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Azzurra Invernizzi
- Laboratory for Experimental Ophthalmology, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands; Cognitive Neuroscience Center, Department of Biomedical Sciences of Cells & Systems, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands; Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.
| | - Koen V Haak
- Donders Institute for Brain Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
| | - Joana C Carvalho
- Laboratory of Preclinical MRI, Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown, Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Remco J Renken
- Cognitive Neuroscience Center, Department of Biomedical Sciences of Cells & Systems, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands
| | - Frans W Cornelissen
- Laboratory for Experimental Ophthalmology, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands; Cognitive Neuroscience Center, Department of Biomedical Sciences of Cells & Systems, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands
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104
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Gong X, Wang Q, Fang F. Configuration perceptual learning and its relationship with element perceptual learning. J Vis 2022; 22:2. [DOI: 10.1167/jov.22.13.2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Xizi Gong
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences and Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, People's Republic of China
- IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Peking University, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Qian Wang
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences and Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, People's Republic of China
- IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Peking University, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Fang Fang
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences and Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, People's Republic of China
- IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Peking University, Beijing, People's Republic of China
- Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, People's Republic of China
- Key Laboratory of Machine Perception (Ministry of Education), Peking University, Beijing, People's Republic of China
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105
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Ma S, Wang L, Chen P, Qin R, Hou L, Yan B. A Mixed Visual Encoding Model Based on the Larger-Scale Receptive Field for Human Brain Activity. Brain Sci 2022; 12:brainsci12121633. [PMID: 36552093 PMCID: PMC9775903 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci12121633] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2022] [Revised: 11/18/2022] [Accepted: 11/28/2022] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Research on visual encoding models for functional magnetic resonance imaging derived from deep neural networks, especially CNN (e.g., VGG16), has been developed. However, CNNs typically use smaller kernel sizes (e.g., 3 × 3) for feature extraction in visual encoding models. Although the receptive field size of CNN can be enlarged by increasing the network depth or subsampling, it is limited by the small size of the convolution kernel, leading to an insufficient receptive field size. In biological research, the size of the neuronal population receptive field of high-level visual encoding regions is usually three to four times that of low-level visual encoding regions. Thus, CNNs with a larger receptive field size align with the biological findings. The RepLKNet model directly expands the convolution kernel size to obtain a larger-scale receptive field. Therefore, this paper proposes a mixed model to replace CNN for feature extraction in visual encoding models. The proposed model mixes RepLKNet and VGG so that the mixed model has a receptive field of different sizes to extract more feature information from the image. The experimental results indicate that the mixed model achieves better encoding performance in multiple regions of the visual cortex than the traditional convolutional model. Also, a larger-scale receptive field should be considered in building visual encoding models so that the convolution network can play a more significant role in visual representations.
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106
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Farahbakhsh M, Anderson EJ, Maimon-Mor RO, Rider A, Greenwood JA, Hirji N, Zaman S, Jones PR, Schwarzkopf DS, Rees G, Michaelides M, Dekker TM. A demonstration of cone function plasticity after gene therapy in achromatopsia. Brain 2022; 145:3803-3815. [PMID: 35998912 PMCID: PMC9679164 DOI: 10.1093/brain/awac226] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/25/2021] [Revised: 05/27/2022] [Accepted: 06/06/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Recent advances in regenerative therapy have placed the treatment of previously incurable eye diseases within arms' reach. Achromatopsia is a severe monogenic heritable retinal disease that disrupts cone function from birth, leaving patients with complete colour blindness, low acuity, photosensitivity and nystagmus. While successful gene-replacement therapy in non-primate models of achromatopsia has raised widespread hopes for clinical treatment, it was yet to be determined if and how these therapies can induce new cone function in the human brain. Using a novel multimodal approach, we demonstrate for the first time that gene therapy can successfully activate dormant cone-mediated pathways in children with achromatopsia (CNGA3- and CNGB3-associated, 10-15 years). To test this, we combined functional MRI population receptive field mapping and psychophysics with stimuli that selectively measure cone photoreceptor signalling. We measured cortical and visual cone function before and after gene therapy in four paediatric patients, evaluating treatment-related change against benchmark data from untreated patients (n = 9) and normal-sighted participants (n = 28). After treatment, two of the four children displayed strong evidence for novel cone-mediated signals in visual cortex, with a retinotopic pattern that was not present in untreated achromatopsia and which is highly unlikely to emerge by chance. Importantly, this change was paired with a significant improvement in psychophysical measures of cone-mediated visual function. These improvements were specific to the treated eye, and provide strong evidence for successful read-out and use of new cone-mediated information. These data show for the first time that gene replacement therapy in achromatopsia within the plastic period of development can awaken dormant cone-signalling pathways after years of deprivation. This reveals unprecedented neural plasticity in the developing human nervous system and offers great promise for emerging regenerative therapies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mahtab Farahbakhsh
- UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, University College London, London EC1V 9EL, UK
- Experimental Psychology, University College London, London WC1H 0AP, UK
| | - Elaine J Anderson
- UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, University College London, London EC1V 9EL, UK
- UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London WC1N 3AZ, UK
- The Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London WC1N 3AR, UK
| | - Roni O Maimon-Mor
- UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, University College London, London EC1V 9EL, UK
- Experimental Psychology, University College London, London WC1H 0AP, UK
| | - Andy Rider
- UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, University College London, London EC1V 9EL, UK
| | - John A Greenwood
- Experimental Psychology, University College London, London WC1H 0AP, UK
| | - Nashila Hirji
- UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, University College London, London EC1V 9EL, UK
- Moorfields Eye Hospital, London EC1V 2PD, UK
| | - Serena Zaman
- UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, University College London, London EC1V 9EL, UK
- Moorfields Eye Hospital, London EC1V 2PD, UK
| | - Pete R Jones
- UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, University College London, London EC1V 9EL, UK
- Division of Optometry and Visual Sciences; School of Health Sciences; City, University of London, London EC1V 0HB, UK
| | - D Samuel Schwarzkopf
- Experimental Psychology, University College London, London WC1H 0AP, UK
- School of Optometry and Vision Science, University of Auckland, Auckland 1023, New Zealand
| | - Geraint Rees
- UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London WC1N 3AZ, UK
- The Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London WC1N 3AR, UK
| | - Michel Michaelides
- UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, University College London, London EC1V 9EL, UK
- Moorfields Eye Hospital, London EC1V 2PD, UK
| | - Tessa M Dekker
- UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, University College London, London EC1V 9EL, UK
- Experimental Psychology, University College London, London WC1H 0AP, UK
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107
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Sadil P, Cowell RA, Huber DE. A modeling framework for determining modulation of neural-level tuning from non-invasive human fMRI data. Commun Biol 2022; 5:1244. [PMID: 36376370 PMCID: PMC9663541 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-022-04000-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/24/2021] [Accepted: 09/07/2022] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Many neuroscience theories assume that tuning modulation of individual neurons underlies changes in human cognition. However, non-invasive fMRI lacks sufficient resolution to visualize this modulation. To address this limitation, we developed an analysis framework called Inferring Neural Tuning Modulation (INTM) for "peering inside" voxels. Precise specification of neural tuning from the BOLD signal is not possible. Instead, INTM compares theoretical alternatives for the form of neural tuning modulation that might underlie changes in BOLD across experimental conditions. The most likely form is identified via formal model comparison, with assumed parametric Normal tuning functions, followed by a non-parametric check of conclusions. We validated the framework by successfully identifying a well-established form of modulation: visual contrast-induced multiplicative gain for orientation tuned neurons. INTM can be applied to any experimental paradigm testing several points along a continuous feature dimension (e.g., direction of motion, isoluminant hue) across two conditions (e.g., with/without attention, before/after learning).
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108
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Le L, Ambrogioni L, Seeliger K, Güçlütürk Y, van Gerven M, Güçlü U. Brain2Pix: Fully convolutional naturalistic video frame reconstruction from brain activity. Front Neurosci 2022; 16:940972. [PMID: 36452333 PMCID: PMC9703977 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2022.940972] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/10/2022] [Accepted: 09/09/2022] [Indexed: 09/10/2024] Open
Abstract
Reconstructing complex and dynamic visual perception from brain activity remains a major challenge in machine learning applications to neuroscience. Here, we present a new method for reconstructing naturalistic images and videos from very large single-participant functional magnetic resonance imaging data that leverages the recent success of image-to-image transformation networks. This is achieved by exploiting spatial information obtained from retinotopic mappings across the visual system. More specifically, we first determine what position each voxel in a particular region of interest would represent in the visual field based on its corresponding receptive field location. Then, the 2D image representation of the brain activity on the visual field is passed to a fully convolutional image-to-image network trained to recover the original stimuli using VGG feature loss with an adversarial regularizer. In our experiments, we show that our method offers a significant improvement over existing video reconstruction techniques.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lynn Le
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Luca Ambrogioni
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Katja Seeliger
- Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Yağmur Güçlütürk
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Marcel van Gerven
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Umut Güçlü
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
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109
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Wei JR, Hao ZZ, Xu C, Huang M, Tang L, Xu N, Liu R, Shen Y, Teichmann SA, Miao Z, Liu S. Identification of visual cortex cell types and species differences using single-cell RNA sequencing. Nat Commun 2022; 13:6902. [PMID: 36371428 PMCID: PMC9653448 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-34590-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/29/2022] [Accepted: 10/31/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The primate neocortex exerts high cognitive ability and strong information processing capacity. Here, we establish a single-cell RNA sequencing dataset of 133,454 macaque visual cortical cells. It covers major cortical cell classes including 25 excitatory neuron types, 37 inhibitory neuron types and all glial cell types. We identified layer-specific markers including HPCAL1 and NXPH4, and also identified two cell types, an NPY-expressing excitatory neuron type that expresses the dopamine receptor D3 gene; and a primate specific activity-dependent OSTN + sensory neuron type. Comparisons of our dataset with humans and mice show that the gene expression profiles differ between species in relation to genes that are implicated in the synaptic plasticity and neuromodulation of excitatory neurons. The comparisons also revealed that glutamatergic neurons may be more diverse across species than GABAergic neurons and non-neuronal cells. These findings pave the way for understanding how the primary cortex fulfills the high-cognitive functions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jia-Ru Wei
- State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, Guangzhou, China
| | - Zhao-Zhe Hao
- State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, Guangzhou, China
| | - Chuan Xu
- Wellcome Sanger Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Cambridge, UK
| | - Mengyao Huang
- State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, Guangzhou, China
| | - Lei Tang
- State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, Guangzhou, China
| | - Nana Xu
- State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, Guangzhou, China
| | - Ruifeng Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, Guangzhou, China
| | - Yuhui Shen
- State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, Guangzhou, China
| | - Sarah A Teichmann
- Wellcome Sanger Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Cambridge, UK.
- Department of Physics, Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
| | - Zhichao Miao
- GMU-GIBH Joint School of Life Sciences, Guangzhou Laboratory, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China.
- European Bioinformatics Institute, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Wellcome Genome Campus, Cambridge, UK.
| | - Sheng Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, Guangzhou, China.
- Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Brain Function and Disease, Guangzhou, China.
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110
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Lage-Castellanos A, De Martino F, Ghose GM, Gulban OF, Moerel M. Selective attention sharpens population receptive fields in human auditory cortex. Cereb Cortex 2022; 33:5395-5408. [PMID: 36336333 PMCID: PMC10152083 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhac427] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/07/2022] [Revised: 10/03/2022] [Accepted: 10/04/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Abstract
Selective attention enables the preferential processing of relevant stimulus aspects. Invasive animal studies have shown that attending a sound feature rapidly modifies neuronal tuning throughout the auditory cortex. Human neuroimaging studies have reported enhanced auditory cortical responses with selective attention. To date, it remains unclear how the results obtained with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in humans relate to the electrophysiological findings in animal models. Here we aim to narrow the gap between animal and human research by combining a selective attention task similar in design to those used in animal electrophysiology with high spatial resolution ultra-high field fMRI at 7 Tesla. Specifically, human participants perform a detection task, whereas the probability of target occurrence varies with sound frequency. Contrary to previous fMRI studies, we show that selective attention resulted in population receptive field sharpening, and consequently reduced responses, at the attended sound frequencies. The difference between our results to those of previous fMRI studies supports the notion that the influence of selective attention on auditory cortex is diverse and may depend on context, stimulus, and task.
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Affiliation(s)
- Agustin Lage-Castellanos
- Department of Cognitive Neuroscience , Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, , 6200 MD, Maastricht , The Netherlands
- Maastricht University , Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, , 6200 MD, Maastricht , The Netherlands
- Maastricht Brain Imaging Center (MBIC) , 6200 MD, Maastricht , The Netherlands
- Department of NeuroInformatics, Cuban Neuroscience Center , Havana City 11600 , Cuba
| | - Federico De Martino
- Department of Cognitive Neuroscience , Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, , 6200 MD, Maastricht , The Netherlands
- Maastricht University , Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, , 6200 MD, Maastricht , The Netherlands
- Maastricht Brain Imaging Center (MBIC) , 6200 MD, Maastricht , The Netherlands
- Center for Magnetic Resonance Research , Department of Radiology, , Minneapolis, MN 55455 , United States
- University of Minnesota , Department of Radiology, , Minneapolis, MN 55455 , United States
| | - Geoffrey M Ghose
- Center for Magnetic Resonance Research , Department of Radiology, , Minneapolis, MN 55455 , United States
- University of Minnesota , Department of Radiology, , Minneapolis, MN 55455 , United States
| | | | - Michelle Moerel
- Department of Cognitive Neuroscience , Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, , 6200 MD, Maastricht , The Netherlands
- Maastricht University , Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, , 6200 MD, Maastricht , The Netherlands
- Maastricht Brain Imaging Center (MBIC) , 6200 MD, Maastricht , The Netherlands
- Maastricht Centre for Systems Biology, Maastricht University , 6200 MD, Maastricht , The Netherlands
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111
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Himmelberg MM, Gardner JL, Winawer J. What has vision science taught us about functional MRI? Neuroimage 2022; 261:119536. [PMID: 35931310 PMCID: PMC9756767 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119536] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/25/2022] [Revised: 07/21/2022] [Accepted: 08/02/2022] [Indexed: 10/31/2022] Open
Abstract
In the domain of human neuroimaging, much attention has been paid to the question of whether and how the development of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has advanced our scientific knowledge of the human brain. However, the opposite question is also important; how has our knowledge of the brain advanced our understanding of fMRI? Here, we discuss how and why scientific knowledge about the human and animal visual system has been used to answer fundamental questions about fMRI as a brain measurement tool and how these answers have contributed to scientific discoveries beyond vision science.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marc M Himmelberg
- Department of Psychology, New York University, NY, USA; Center for Neural Science, New York University, NY, USA.
| | | | - Jonathan Winawer
- Department of Psychology, New York University, NY, USA; Center for Neural Science, New York University, NY, USA
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112
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Natural scene sampling reveals reliable coarse-scale orientation tuning in human V1. Nat Commun 2022; 13:6469. [PMID: 36309512 PMCID: PMC9617970 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-34134-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/05/2022] [Accepted: 10/13/2022] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Orientation selectivity in primate visual cortex is organized into cortical columns. Since cortical columns are at a finer spatial scale than the sampling resolution of standard BOLD fMRI measurements, analysis approaches have been proposed to peer past these spatial resolution limitations. It was recently found that these methods are predominantly sensitive to stimulus vignetting - a form of selectivity arising from an interaction of the oriented stimulus with the aperture edge. Beyond vignetting, it is not clear whether orientation-selective neural responses are detectable in BOLD measurements. Here, we leverage a dataset of visual cortical responses measured using high-field 7T fMRI. Fitting these responses using image-computable models, we compensate for vignetting and nonetheless find reliable tuning for orientation. Results further reveal a coarse-scale map of orientation preference that may constitute the neural basis for known perceptual anisotropies. These findings settle a long-standing debate in human neuroscience, and provide insights into functional organization principles of visual cortex.
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113
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Favila SE, Kuhl BA, Winawer J. Perception and memory have distinct spatial tuning properties in human visual cortex. Nat Commun 2022; 13:5864. [PMID: 36257949 PMCID: PMC9579130 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-33161-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/03/2020] [Accepted: 09/06/2022] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Reactivation of earlier perceptual activity is thought to underlie long-term memory recall. Despite evidence for this view, it is unclear whether mnemonic activity exhibits the same tuning properties as feedforward perceptual activity. Here, we leverage population receptive field models to parameterize fMRI activity in human visual cortex during spatial memory retrieval. Though retinotopic organization is present during both perception and memory, large systematic differences in tuning are also evident. Whereas there is a three-fold decline in spatial precision from early to late visual areas during perception, this pattern is not observed during memory retrieval. This difference cannot be explained by reduced signal-to-noise or poor performance on memory trials. Instead, by simulating top-down activity in a network model of cortex, we demonstrate that this property is well explained by the hierarchical structure of the visual system. Together, modeling and empirical results suggest that computational constraints imposed by visual system architecture limit the fidelity of memory reactivation in sensory cortex.
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Affiliation(s)
- Serra E Favila
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY, 10003, USA.
- Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, NY, 10027, USA.
| | - Brice A Kuhl
- Department of Psychology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, 97403, USA
- Institute of Neuroscience, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, 97403, USA
| | - Jonathan Winawer
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY, 10003, USA
- Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY, 10003, USA
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114
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Jovanovic L, McGraw PV, Roach NW, Johnston A. The spatial properties of adaptation-induced distance compression. J Vis 2022; 22:7. [PMID: 36223110 PMCID: PMC9583746 DOI: 10.1167/jov.22.11.7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Exposure to a dynamic texture reduces the perceived separation between objects, altering the mapping between physical relations in the environment and their neural representations. Here we investigated the spatial tuning and spatial frame of reference of this aftereffect to understand the stage(s) of processing where adaptation-induced changes occur. In Experiment 1, we measured apparent separation at different positions relative to the adapted area, revealing a strong but tightly tuned compression effect. We next tested the spatial frame of reference of the effect, either by introducing a gaze shift between adaptation and test phase (Experiment 2) or by decoupling the spatial selectivity of adaptation in retinotopic and world-centered coordinates (Experiment 3). Results across the two experiments indicated that both retinotopic and world-centered adaptation effects can occur independently. Spatial attention to the location of the adaptor alone could not account for the world-centered transfer we observed, and retinotopic adaptation did not transfer to world-centered coordinates after a saccade (Experiment 4). Finally, we found that aftereffects in different reference frames have a similar, narrow spatial tuning profile (Experiment 5). Together, our results suggest that the neural representation of local separation resides early in the visual cortex, but it can also be modulated by activity in higher visual areas.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Paul V McGraw
- School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK.,
| | - Neil W Roach
- School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK.,
| | - Alan Johnston
- School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK.,
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115
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Hofstetter S, Dumoulin SO. Assessing the ecological validity of numerosity-selective neuronal populations with real-world natural scenes. iScience 2022; 25:105267. [PMID: 36274951 PMCID: PMC9579010 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.105267] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/17/2022] [Revised: 07/18/2022] [Accepted: 09/26/2022] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Animals and humans are able to quickly and effortlessly estimate the number of items in a set: their numerosity. Numerosity perception is thought to be critical to behavior, from feeding to escaping predators to human mathematical cognition. Virtually, all scientific studies on numerosity mechanisms use well controlled but artificial stimuli to isolate the numerosity dimension from other physical quantities. Here, we probed the ecological validity of these artificial stimuli and evaluate whether an important component in numerosity processing, the numerosity-selective neural populations, also respond to numerosity of items in real-world natural scenes. Using 7T MRI and natural images from a wide range of categories, we provide evidence that the numerosity-tuned neuronal populations show numerosity-selective responses when viewing images from a real-world natural scene. Our findings strengthen the role of numerosity-selective neurons in numerosity perception and provide an important link to their function in numerosity perception in real-world settings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shir Hofstetter
- The Spinoza Centre for Neuroimaging, Amsterdam, the Netherlands,Department of Computational Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, Amsterdam, the Netherlands,Corresponding author
| | - Serge O. Dumoulin
- The Spinoza Centre for Neuroimaging, Amsterdam, the Netherlands,Department of Computational Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, Amsterdam, the Netherlands,Department of Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands,Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology, VU University, Amsterdam, the Netherlands,Corresponding author
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116
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An evaluation of how connectopic mapping reveals visual field maps in V1. Sci Rep 2022; 12:16249. [PMID: 36171242 PMCID: PMC9519585 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-20322-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/23/2022] [Accepted: 09/09/2022] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Abstract Functional gradients, in which response properties change gradually across the cortical surface, have been proposed as a key organising principle of the brain. However, the presence of these gradients remains undetermined in many brain regions. Resting-state neuroimaging studies have suggested these gradients can be reconstructed from patterns of functional connectivity. Here we investigate the accuracy of these reconstructions and establish whether it is connectivity or the functional properties within a region that determine these “connectopic maps”. Different manifold learning techniques were used to recover visual field maps while participants were at rest or engaged in natural viewing. We benchmarked these reconstructions against maps measured by traditional visual field mapping. We report an initial exploratory experiment of a publicly available naturalistic imaging dataset, followed by a preregistered replication using larger resting-state and naturalistic imaging datasets from the Human Connectome Project. Connectopic mapping accurately predicted visual field maps in primary visual cortex, with better predictions for eccentricity than polar angle maps. Non-linear manifold learning methods outperformed simpler linear embeddings. We also found more accurate predictions during natural viewing compared to resting-state. Varying the source of the connectivity estimates had minimal impact on the connectopic maps, suggesting the key factor is the functional topography within a brain region. The application of these standardised methods for connectopic mapping will allow the discovery of functional gradients across the brain. Protocol registration The stage 1 protocol for this Registered Report was accepted in
principle on 19 April 2022. The protocol, as accepted by the journal, can be found at 10.6084/m9.figshare.19771717.
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117
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Kurzawski JW, Gulban OF, Jamison K, Winawer J, Kay K. Non-Neural Factors Influencing BOLD Response Magnitudes within Individual Subjects. J Neurosci 2022; 42:7256-7266. [PMID: 35970558 PMCID: PMC9512576 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.2532-21.2022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/26/2021] [Revised: 06/15/2022] [Accepted: 08/03/2022] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
To what extent is the size of the BOLD response influenced by factors other than neural activity? In a reanalysis of three neuroimaging datasets (male and female human participants), we find large systematic inhomogeneities in the BOLD response magnitude in primary visual cortex (V1): stimulus-evoked BOLD responses, expressed in units of percent signal change, are up to 50% larger along the representation of the horizontal meridian than the vertical meridian. To assess whether this surprising effect can be interpreted as differences in local neural activity, we quantified several factors that potentially contribute to the size of the BOLD response. We find relationships between BOLD response magnitude and cortical thickness, curvature, depth, and macrovasculature. These relationships are consistently found across subjects and datasets and suggest that variation in BOLD response magnitudes across cortical locations reflects, in part, differences in anatomy and vascularization. To compensate for these factors, we implement a regression-based correction method and show that, after correction, BOLD responses become more homogeneous across V1. The correction reduces the horizontal/vertical difference by about half, indicating that some of the difference is likely not because of neural activity differences. We conclude that interpretation of variation in BOLD response magnitude across cortical locations should consider the influence of the potential confounding factors of thickness, curvature, depth, and vascularization.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The magnitude of the BOLD signal is often used as a surrogate of neural activity, but the exact factors that contribute to its strength have not been studied on a voxel-wise level. Here, we examined several anatomical and measurement-related factors to assess their relationship with BOLD signal magnitude. We find that BOLD magnitude correlates with cortical anatomy, depth, and macrovasculature. To remove the contribution of these factors, we propose a simple, data-driven correction method that can be used in any fMRI experiment. After accounting for the confounding factors, BOLD magnitude becomes more spatially homogeneous. Our correction method improves the ability to make more accurate inferences about local neural activity from fMRI data.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jan W Kurzawski
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, New York 10003
| | - Omer Faruk Gulban
- Cognitive Neuroscience Department, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, 62229, The Netherlands
- Brain Innovation, Maastricht, 62229, The Netherlands
| | - Keith Jamison
- Department of Radiology, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, New York 10021
| | - Jonathan Winawer
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, New York 10003
| | - Kendrick Kay
- Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, Department of Radiology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455
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118
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Linhardt D, Pawloff M, Woletz M, Hummer A, Tik M, Vasileiadi M, Ritter M, Lerma-Usabiaga G, Schmidt-Erfurth U, Windischberger C. Intrasession and Intersession Reproducibility of Artificial Scotoma pRF Mapping Results at Ultra-High Fields. eNeuro 2022; 9:ENEURO.0087-22.2022. [PMID: 36635900 PMCID: PMC9512620 DOI: 10.1523/eneuro.0087-22.2022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/25/2022] [Revised: 06/29/2022] [Accepted: 08/23/2022] [Indexed: 02/02/2023] Open
Abstract
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) combined with population receptive field (pRF) mapping allows for associating positions on the visual cortex to areas on the visual field. Apart from applications in healthy subjects, this method can also be used to examine dysfunctions in patients suffering from partial visual field losses. While such objective measurement of visual deficits (scotoma) is of great importance for, e.g., longitudinal studies addressing treatment effects, it requires a thorough assessment of accuracy and reproducibility of the results obtained. In this study, we quantified the reproducibility of pRF mapping results within and across sessions in case of central visual field loss in a group of 15 human subjects. We simulated scotoma by masking a central area of 2° radius from stimulation to establish ground-truth conditions. This study was performed on a 7T ultra-high field MRI scanner for increased sensitivity. We found excellent intrasession and intersession reproducibility for the pRF center position (Spearman correlation coefficients for x, y: >0.95; eccentricity: >0.87; polar angle: >0.98), but only modest reproducibility for pRF size (Spearman correlation coefficients around 0.4). We further examined the scotoma detection performance using an automated method based on a reference dataset acquired with full-field stimulation. For the 2° artificial scotoma, the group-averaged scotoma sizes were estimated at between 1.92° and 2.19° for different sessions. We conclude that pRF mapping of visual field losses yields robust, reproducible measures of retinal function and suggest the use of pRF mapping as an objective method for monitoring visual deficits during therapeutic interventions or disease progression.
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Affiliation(s)
- David Linhardt
- High Field MR Center, Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, Medical University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria
| | - Maximilian Pawloff
- Department of Ophthalmology, Medical University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria
| | - Michael Woletz
- High Field MR Center, Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, Medical University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria
| | - Allan Hummer
- High Field MR Center, Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, Medical University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria
| | - Martin Tik
- High Field MR Center, Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, Medical University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria
| | - Maria Vasileiadi
- High Field MR Center, Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, Medical University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria
| | - Markus Ritter
- Department of Ophthalmology, Medical University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria
| | - Garikoitz Lerma-Usabiaga
- BCBL, Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, 20009 Donostia-San Sebastián, Gipuzkoa, Spain
| | | | - Christian Windischberger
- High Field MR Center, Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, Medical University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria
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119
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Khalife S, Francis ST, Schluppeck D, Sánchez-Panchuelo RM, Besle J. Fast Event-Related Mapping of Population Fingertip Tuning Properties in Human Sensorimotor Cortex at 7T. eNeuro 2022; 9:ENEURO.0069-22.2022. [PMID: 36194620 PMCID: PMC9480917 DOI: 10.1523/eneuro.0069-22.2022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/04/2022] [Revised: 07/11/2022] [Accepted: 07/31/2022] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
fMRI studies that investigate somatotopic tactile representations in the human cortex typically use either block or phase-encoded stimulation designs. Event-related (ER) designs allow for more flexible and unpredictable stimulation sequences than the other methods, but they are less efficient. Here, we compared an efficiency-optimized fast ER design (2.8-s average intertrial interval; ITI) to a conventional slow ER design (8-s average ITI) for mapping voxelwise fingertip tactile tuning properties in the sensorimotor cortex of six participants at 7 Tesla. The fast ER design yielded more reliable responses compared with the slow ER design, but with otherwise similar tuning properties. Concatenating the fast and slow ER data, we demonstrate in each individual brain the existence of two separate somatotopically-organized tactile representations of the fingertips, one in the primary somatosensory cortex (S1) on the postcentral gyrus, and the other shared across the motor and premotor cortices on the precentral gyrus. In both S1 and motor representations, fingertip selectivity decreased progressively, from narrowly-tuned Brodmann area (BA) 3b and BA4a, respectively, toward associative parietal and frontal regions that responded equally to all fingertips, suggesting increasing information integration along these two pathways. In addition, fingertip selectivity in S1 decreased from the cortical representation of the thumb to that of the pinky.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah Khalife
- Department of Psychology, American University of Beirut, Beirut, 11072020, Lebanon
| | - Susan T Francis
- Sir Peter Mansfield Imaging Centre, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG72RD, United Kingdom
- National Institute for Health and Care Research Nottingham Biomedical Research Centre, Nottingham University Hospitals National Health Service Trust, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG72RD, United Kingdom
| | - Denis Schluppeck
- Visual Neuroscience Group, School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG72RD, United Kingdom
| | - Rosa-Maria Sánchez-Panchuelo
- National Institute for Health and Care Research Nottingham Biomedical Research Centre, Nottingham University Hospitals National Health Service Trust, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG72RD, United Kingdom
| | - Julien Besle
- Department of Psychology, American University of Beirut, Beirut, 11072020, Lebanon
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120
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Miyata T, Benson NC, Winawer J, Takemura H. Structural Covariance and Heritability of the Optic Tract and Primary Visual Cortex in Living Human Brains. J Neurosci 2022; 42:6761-6769. [PMID: 35853720 PMCID: PMC9436011 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.0043-22.2022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/16/2021] [Revised: 05/31/2022] [Accepted: 07/11/2022] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Individual differences among human brains exist at many scales, spanning gene expression, white matter tissue properties, and the size and shape of cortical areas. One notable example is an approximately 3-fold range in the size of human primary visual cortex (V1), a much larger range than is found in overall brain size. A previous study (Andrews et al., 1997) reported a correlation between optic tract (OT) cross-section area and V1 size in postmortem human brains, suggesting that there may be a common developmental mechanism for multiple components of the visual pathways. We evaluated the relationship between properties of the OT and V1 in a much larger sample of living human brains by analyzing the Human Connectome Project (HCP) 7 Tesla Retinotopy Dataset (including 107 females and 71 males). This dataset includes retinotopic maps measured with functional MRI (fMRI) and fiber tract data measured with diffusion MRI (dMRI). We found a negative correlation between OT fractional anisotropy (FA) and V1 surface area (r = -0.19). This correlation, although small, was consistent across multiple dMRI datasets differing in acquisition parameters. Further, we found that both V1 surface area and OT properties were correlated among twins, with higher correlations for monozygotic (MZ) than dizygotic (DZ) twins, indicating a high degree of heritability for both properties. Together, these results demonstrate covariation across individuals in properties of the retina (OT) and cortex (V1) and show that each is influenced by genetic factors.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The size of human primary visual cortex (V1) has large interindividual differences. These differences do not scale with overall brain size. A previous postmortem study reported a correlation between the size of the human optic tract (OT) and V1. In this study, we evaluated the relationship between the OT and V1 in living humans by analyzing a neuroimaging dataset that included functional MRI (fMRI) and diffusion MRI (dMRI) data. We found a small, but robust correlation between OT tissue properties and V1 size, supporting the existence of structural covariance between the OT and V1 in living humans. The results suggest that characteristics of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), reflected in OT measurements, are correlated with individual differences in human V1.
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Affiliation(s)
- Toshikazu Miyata
- Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences, Osaka University, Suita-shi 565-0871, Japan
- Center for Information and Neural Networks (CiNet), Advanced ICT Institute, National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), Suita-shi 565-0871, Japan
- Division of Sensory and Cognitive Brain Mapping, Department of System Neuroscience, National Institute for Physiological Sciences, Okazaki-shi 444-8585, Japan
| | - Noah C Benson
- eScience Institute, University of Washington, Seattle, 98195, Washington
| | - Jonathan Winawer
- Department of Psychology and Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY 10003
| | - Hiromasa Takemura
- Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences, Osaka University, Suita-shi 565-0871, Japan
- Center for Information and Neural Networks (CiNet), Advanced ICT Institute, National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), Suita-shi 565-0871, Japan
- Division of Sensory and Cognitive Brain Mapping, Department of System Neuroscience, National Institute for Physiological Sciences, Okazaki-shi 444-8585, Japan
- Department of Physiological Sciences, School of Life Science, SOKENDAI (The Graduate University for Advanced Studies), Hayama-cho 240-0193, Japan
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121
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Qubad M, Barnes-Scheufler CV, Schaum M, Raspor E, Rösler L, Peters B, Schiweck C, Goebel R, Reif A, Bittner RA. Improved correspondence of fMRI visual field localizer data after cortex-based macroanatomical alignment. Sci Rep 2022; 12:14310. [PMID: 35995943 PMCID: PMC9395433 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-17909-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/01/2021] [Accepted: 08/02/2022] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Studying the visual system with fMRI often requires using localizer paradigms to define regions of interest (ROIs). However, the considerable interindividual variability of the cerebral cortex represents a crucial confound for group-level analyses. Cortex-based alignment (CBA) techniques reliably reduce interindividual macroanatomical variability. Yet, their utility has not been assessed for visual field localizer paradigms, which map specific parts of the visual field within retinotopically organized visual areas. We evaluated CBA for an attention-enhanced visual field localizer, mapping homologous parts of each visual quadrant in 50 participants. We compared CBA with volume-based alignment and a surface-based analysis, which did not include macroanatomical alignment. CBA led to the strongest increase in the probability of activation overlap (up to 86%). At the group level, CBA led to the most consistent increase in ROI size while preserving vertical ROI symmetry. Overall, our results indicate that in addition to the increased signal-to-noise ratio of a surface-based analysis, macroanatomical alignment considerably improves statistical power. These findings confirm and extend the utility of CBA for the study of the visual system in the context of group analyses. CBA should be particularly relevant when studying neuropsychiatric disorders with abnormally increased interindividual macroanatomical variability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mishal Qubad
- Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy and Brain Imaging Center, University Hospital Frankfurt, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
| | - Catherine V Barnes-Scheufler
- Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy and Brain Imaging Center, University Hospital Frankfurt, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
| | - Michael Schaum
- Leibniz Institute for Resilience Research, Mainz, Germany
| | - Eva Raspor
- Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy and Brain Imaging Center, University Hospital Frankfurt, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
| | - Lara Rösler
- Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy and Brain Imaging Center, University Hospital Frankfurt, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.,Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Benjamin Peters
- Institute of Medical Psychology, University Hospital Frankfurt, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.,Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Carmen Schiweck
- Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy and Brain Imaging Center, University Hospital Frankfurt, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
| | - Rainer Goebel
- Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.,Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands
| | - Andreas Reif
- Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy and Brain Imaging Center, University Hospital Frankfurt, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
| | - Robert A Bittner
- Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy and Brain Imaging Center, University Hospital Frankfurt, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. .,Ernst Strüngmann Institute for Neuroscience (ESI) in Cooperation With Max Planck Society, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
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122
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Pitfalls in Post Hoc Analyses of Population Receptive Field Data. Neuroimage 2022; 263:119557. [PMID: 35970472 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119557] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/30/2021] [Revised: 08/02/2022] [Accepted: 08/11/2022] [Indexed: 10/31/2022] Open
Abstract
Data binning involves grouping observations into bins and calculating bin-wise summary statistics. It can cope with overplotting and noise, making it a versatile tool for comparing many observations. However, data binning goes awry if the same observations are used for binning (selection) and contrasting (selective analysis). This creates circularity, biasing noise components and resulting in artifactual changes in the form of regression towards the mean. Importantly, these artifactual changes are a statistical necessity. Here, we use (null) simulations and empirical repeat data to expose this flaw in the scope of post hoc analyses of population receptive field data. In doing so, we reveal that the type of data analysis, data properties, and circular data cleaning are factors shaping the appearance of such artifactual changes. We furthermore highlight that circular data cleaning and circular sorting of change scores are selection practices that result in artifactual changes even without circular data binning. These pitfalls might have led to erroneous claims about changes in population receptive fields in previous work and can be mitigated by using independent data for selection purposes. Our evaluations highlight the urgency for us researchers to make the validation of analysis pipelines standard practice.
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123
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Taskin HO, Qiao Y, Sydnor VJ, Cieslak M, Haggerty EB, Satterthwaite TD, Morgan JI, Shi Y, Aguirre GK. Retinal ganglion cell endowment is correlated with optic tract fiber cross section, not density. Neuroimage 2022; 260:119495. [PMID: 35868617 PMCID: PMC10362491 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119495] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/30/2022] [Revised: 06/27/2022] [Accepted: 07/19/2022] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
There is substantial variation between healthy individuals in the number of retinal ganglion cells (RGC) in the eye, with commensurate variation in the number of axons in the optic tracts. Fixel-based analysis of diffusion MR produces estimates of fiber density (FD) and cross section (FC). Using these fixel measurements along with retinal imaging, we asked if individual differences in RGC tissue volume are correlated with individual differences in FD and FC measurements obtained from the optic tracts, and subsequent structures along the cortical visual pathway. We find that RGC endowment is correlated with optic tract FC, but not with FD. RGC volume had a decreasing relationship with measurements from subsequent regions of the visual system (LGN volume, optic radiation FC/FD, and V1 surface area). However, we also found that the variations in each visual area were correlated with the variations in its immediately adjacent visual structure. We only observed these serial correlations when FC is used as the measure of interest for the optic tract and radiations, but no significant relationship was found when FD represented these white matter structures. From these results, we conclude that the variations in RGC endowment, LGN volume, and V1 surface area are better predicted by the overall cross section of the optic tract and optic radiations as compared to the intra-axonal restricted signal component of these white matter pathways. Additionally, the presence of significant correlations between adjacent, but not distant, anatomical structures suggests that there are multiple, local sources of anatomical variation along the visual pathway.
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Affiliation(s)
- Huseyin O Taskin
- Department of Neurology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104
| | - Yuchuan Qiao
- Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90033
| | - Valerie J Sydnor
- Biomedical Graduate Studies, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104
| | - Matthew Cieslak
- Department of Neuropsychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104
| | - Edda B Haggerty
- Department of Neurology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104
| | - Theodore D Satterthwaite
- Department of Psychiatry, Penn Lifespan Informatics and Neuroimaging Center, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104
| | - Jessica Iw Morgan
- Department of Ophthalmology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104
| | - Yonggang Shi
- Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90033
| | - Geoffrey K Aguirre
- Department of Neurology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104.
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124
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Visual timing-tuned responses in human association cortices and response dynamics in early visual cortex. Nat Commun 2022; 13:3952. [PMID: 35804026 PMCID: PMC9270326 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-31675-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/01/2021] [Accepted: 06/24/2022] [Indexed: 12/05/2022] Open
Abstract
Quantifying the timing (duration and frequency) of brief visual events is vital to human perception, multisensory integration and action planning. Tuned neural responses to visual event timing have been found in association cortices, in areas implicated in these processes. Here we ask how these timing-tuned responses are related to the responses of early visual cortex, which monotonically increase with event duration and frequency. Using 7-Tesla functional magnetic resonance imaging and neural model-based analyses, we find a gradual transition from monotonically increasing to timing-tuned neural responses beginning in the medial temporal area (MT/V5). Therefore, across successive stages of visual processing, timing-tuned response components gradually become dominant over inherent sensory response modulation by event timing. This additional timing-tuned response component is independent of retinotopic location. We propose that this hierarchical emergence of timing-tuned responses from sensory processing areas quantifies sensory event timing while abstracting temporal representations from spatial properties of their inputs. Early visual cortical responses increase with event duration and frequency, while later timing-tuned responses quantify event timing. Here, the authors show timing tuning gradually emerges up the visual hierarchy, and separates temporal and spatial event features.
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125
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Urale PWB, Puckett AM, York A, Arnold D, Schwarzkopf DS. Highly accurate retinotopic maps of the physiological blind spot in human visual cortex. Hum Brain Mapp 2022; 43:5111-5125. [PMID: 35796159 PMCID: PMC9812231 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.25996] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/19/2022] [Revised: 05/18/2022] [Accepted: 06/15/2022] [Indexed: 01/15/2023] Open
Abstract
The physiological blind spot is a naturally occurring scotoma corresponding with the optic disc in the retina of each eye. Even during monocular viewing, observers are usually oblivious to the scotoma, in part because the visual system extrapolates information from the surrounding area. Unfortunately, studying this visual field region with neuroimaging has proven difficult, as it occupies only a small part of retinotopic cortex. Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging and a novel data-driven method for mapping the retinotopic organization in and around the blind spot representation in V1. Our approach allowed for highly accurate reconstructions of the extent of an observer's blind spot, and out-performed conventional model-based analyses. This method opens exciting opportunities to study the plasticity of receptive fields after visual field loss, and our data add to evidence suggesting that the neural circuitry responsible for impressions of perceptual completion across the physiological blind spot most likely involves regions of extrastriate cortex-beyond V1.
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Affiliation(s)
- Poutasi W. B. Urale
- School of Optometry & Vision ScienceUniversity of AucklandAucklandNew Zealand
| | - Alexander M. Puckett
- School of PsychologyUniversity of QueenslandBrisbaneQueenslandAustralia
- Queensland Brain InstituteUniversity of QueenslandBrisbaneQueenslandAustralia
| | - Ashley York
- School of PsychologyUniversity of QueenslandBrisbaneQueenslandAustralia
- Queensland Brain InstituteUniversity of QueenslandBrisbaneQueenslandAustralia
| | - Derek Arnold
- School of PsychologyUniversity of QueenslandBrisbaneQueenslandAustralia
- Queensland Brain InstituteUniversity of QueenslandBrisbaneQueenslandAustralia
| | - D. Samuel Schwarzkopf
- School of Optometry & Vision ScienceUniversity of AucklandAucklandNew Zealand
- Experimental PsychologyUniversity College LondonLondonUnited Kingdom
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126
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Xu H, Liu M, Zhang D. How does the brain represent the semantic content of an image? Neural Netw 2022; 154:31-42. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neunet.2022.06.034] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/16/2021] [Revised: 04/13/2022] [Accepted: 06/28/2022] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
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127
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Janko D, Thoenes K, Park D, Willoughby WR, Horton M, Bolding M. Somatotopic Mapping of the Fingers in the Somatosensory Cortex Using Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging: A Review of Literature. Front Neuroanat 2022; 16:866848. [PMID: 35847829 PMCID: PMC9277538 DOI: 10.3389/fnana.2022.866848] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2022] [Accepted: 05/16/2022] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Multiple studies have demonstrated finger somatotopy in humans and other primates using a variety of brain mapping techniques including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Here, we review the literature to better understand the reliability of fMRI for mapping the somatosensory cortex. We have chosen to focus on the hand and fingers as these areas have the largest representation and have been the subject of the largest number of somatotopic mapping experiments. Regardless of the methods used, individual finger somatosensory maps were found to be organized across Brodmann areas (BAs) 3b, 1, and 2 in lateral-to-medial and inferior-to-superior fashion moving from the thumb to the pinky. However, some consistent discrepancies are found that depend principally on the method used to stimulate the hand and fingers. Therefore, we suggest that a comparative analysis of different types of stimulation be performed to address the differences described in this review.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel Janko
- Department of Psychology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, United States
- Department of Neurology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, United States
| | - Kristina Thoenes
- Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine Auburn, Auburn, AL, United States
| | - Dahye Park
- School of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, United States
| | - W. R. Willoughby
- Department of Radiology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, United States
| | - Meredith Horton
- Department of Neurology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, United States
| | - Mark Bolding
- Department of Radiology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, United States
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128
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Cai Y, Hofstetter S, Harvey BM, Dumoulin SO. Attention drives human numerosity-selective responses. Cell Rep 2022; 39:111005. [PMID: 35767956 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2022.111005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/19/2021] [Revised: 04/18/2022] [Accepted: 06/03/2022] [Indexed: 11/03/2022] Open
Abstract
Numerosity, the set size of a group of items, helps guide behavior and decisions. Previous studies have shown that neural populations respond selectively to numerosities. How numerosity is extracted from the visual scene is a longstanding debate, often contrasting low-level visual with high-level cognitive processes. Here, we investigate how attention influences numerosity-selective responses. The stimuli consisted of black and white dots within the same display. Participants' attention was focused on either black or white dots, while we systematically changed the numerosity of black, white, and total dots. Using 7 T fMRI, we show that the numerosity-tuned neural populations respond only when attention is focused on their preferred numerosity, irrespective of the unattended or total numerosities. Without attention, responses to preferred numerosity are suppressed. Unlike traditional effects of attention in the visual cortex, where attention enhances already existing responses, these results suggest that attention is required to drive numerosity-selective responses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuxuan Cai
- Spinoza Centre for Neuroimaging, Meibergdreef 75, 1105BK Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Computational Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Experimental and Applied Psychology, Vrije University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
| | - Shir Hofstetter
- Spinoza Centre for Neuroimaging, Meibergdreef 75, 1105BK Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Computational Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Ben M Harvey
- Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands
| | - Serge O Dumoulin
- Spinoza Centre for Neuroimaging, Meibergdreef 75, 1105BK Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Computational Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Experimental and Applied Psychology, Vrije University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands.
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129
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Himmelberg MM, Winawer J, Carrasco M. Linking individual differences in human primary visual cortex to contrast sensitivity around the visual field. Nat Commun 2022; 13:3309. [PMID: 35697680 PMCID: PMC9192713 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-31041-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/09/2021] [Accepted: 05/06/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
A central question in neuroscience is how the organization of cortical maps relates to perception, for which human primary visual cortex (V1) is an ideal model system. V1 nonuniformly samples the retinal image, with greater cortical magnification (surface area per degree of visual field) at the fovea than periphery and at the horizontal than vertical meridian. Moreover, the size and cortical magnification of V1 varies greatly across individuals. Here, we used fMRI and psychophysics in the same observers to quantify individual differences in V1 cortical magnification and contrast sensitivity at the four polar angle meridians. Across observers, the overall size of V1 and localized cortical magnification positively correlated with contrast sensitivity. Moreover, greater cortical magnification and higher contrast sensitivity at the horizontal than the vertical meridian were strongly correlated. These data reveal a link between cortical anatomy and visual perception at the level of individual observer and stimulus location.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marc M Himmelberg
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY, 10003, USA.
- Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY, 10003, USA.
| | - Jonathan Winawer
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY, 10003, USA
- Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY, 10003, USA
| | - Marisa Carrasco
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY, 10003, USA
- Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY, 10003, USA
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130
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van Ackooij M, Paul JM, van der Zwaag W, van der Stoep N, Harvey BM. Auditory timing-tuned neural responses in the human auditory cortices. Neuroimage 2022; 258:119366. [PMID: 35690255 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119366] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/11/2022] [Revised: 05/25/2022] [Accepted: 06/08/2022] [Indexed: 11/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Perception of sub-second auditory event timing supports multisensory integration, and speech and music perception and production. Neural populations tuned for the timing (duration and rate) of visual events were recently described in several human extrastriate visual areas. Here we ask whether the brain also contains neural populations tuned for auditory event timing, and whether these are shared with visual timing. Using 7T fMRI, we measured responses to white noise bursts of changing duration and rate. We analyzed these responses using neural response models describing different parametric relationships between event timing and neural response amplitude. This revealed auditory timing-tuned responses in the primary auditory cortex, and auditory association areas of the belt, parabelt and premotor cortex. While these areas also showed tonotopic tuning for auditory pitch, pitch and timing preferences were not consistently correlated. Auditory timing-tuned response functions differed between these areas, though without clear hierarchical integration of responses. The similarity of auditory and visual timing tuned responses, together with the lack of overlap between the areas showing these responses for each modality, suggests modality-specific responses to event timing are computed similarly but from different sensory inputs, and then transformed differently to suit the needs of each modality.
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Affiliation(s)
- Martijn van Ackooij
- Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, Heidelberglaan 1, Utrecht 3584 CS, the Netherlands
| | - Jacob M Paul
- Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, Heidelberglaan 1, Utrecht 3584 CS, the Netherlands; Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne, Redmond Barry Building, Parkville 3010, Victoria, Australia
| | | | - Nathan van der Stoep
- Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, Heidelberglaan 1, Utrecht 3584 CS, the Netherlands
| | - Ben M Harvey
- Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, Heidelberglaan 1, Utrecht 3584 CS, the Netherlands.
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131
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Lin B, Chen Y, Li B, Avitt A, Guo Y, Pan L, Huang X. Spatial Selectivity of the Visual Duration Aftereffect in the Sub-second Range: An Event-related Potentials Study. Behav Brain Res 2022; 431:113950. [DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2022.113950] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/04/2021] [Revised: 05/03/2022] [Accepted: 05/29/2022] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
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132
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Abstract
Humans are exquisitely sensitive to the spatial arrangement of visual features in objects and scenes, but not in visual textures. Category-selective regions in the visual cortex are widely believed to underlie object perception, suggesting such regions should distinguish natural images of objects from synthesized images containing similar visual features in scrambled arrangements. Contrarily, we demonstrate that representations in category-selective cortex do not discriminate natural images from feature-matched scrambles but can discriminate images of different categories, suggesting a texture-like encoding. We find similar insensitivity to feature arrangement in Imagenet-trained deep convolutional neural networks. This suggests the need to reconceptualize the role of category-selective cortex as representing a basis set of complex texture-like features, useful for a myriad of behaviors. The human visual ability to recognize objects and scenes is widely thought to rely on representations in category-selective regions of the visual cortex. These representations could support object vision by specifically representing objects, or, more simply, by representing complex visual features regardless of the particular spatial arrangement needed to constitute real-world objects, that is, by representing visual textures. To discriminate between these hypotheses, we leveraged an image synthesis approach that, unlike previous methods, provides independent control over the complexity and spatial arrangement of visual features. We found that human observers could easily detect a natural object among synthetic images with similar complex features that were spatially scrambled. However, observer models built from BOLD responses from category-selective regions, as well as a model of macaque inferotemporal cortex and Imagenet-trained deep convolutional neural networks, were all unable to identify the real object. This inability was not due to a lack of signal to noise, as all observer models could predict human performance in image categorization tasks. How then might these texture-like representations in category-selective regions support object perception? An image-specific readout from category-selective cortex yielded a representation that was more selective for natural feature arrangement, showing that the information necessary for natural object discrimination is available. Thus, our results suggest that the role of the human category-selective visual cortex is not to explicitly encode objects but rather to provide a basis set of texture-like features that can be infinitely reconfigured to flexibly learn and identify new object categories.
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133
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Schellekens W, Bakker C, Ramsey NF, Petridou N. Moving in on human motor cortex. Characterizing the relationship between body parts with non-rigid population response fields. PLoS Comput Biol 2022; 18:e1009955. [PMID: 35377877 PMCID: PMC9009778 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009955] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/20/2020] [Revised: 04/14/2022] [Accepted: 02/22/2022] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
For cortical motor activity, the relationships between different body part representations is unknown. Through reciprocal body part relationships, functionality of cortical motor areas with respect to whole body motor control can be characterized. In the current study, we investigate the relationship between body part representations within individual neuronal populations in motor cortices, following a 7 Tesla fMRI 18-body-part motor experiment in combination with our newly developed non-rigid population Response Field (pRF) model and graph theory. The non-rigid pRF metrics reveal somatotopic structures in all included motor cortices covering frontal, parietal, medial and insular cortices and that neuronal populations in primary sensorimotor cortex respond to fewer body parts than secondary motor cortices. Reciprocal body part relationships are estimated in terms of uniqueness, clique-formation, and influence. We report unique response profiles for the knee, a clique of body parts surrounding the ring finger, and a central role for the shoulder and wrist. These results reveal associations among body parts from the perspective of the central nervous system, while being in agreement with intuitive notions of body part usage.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wouter Schellekens
- Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Brain Center, UMC Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands
- Radiology department, Center for Image Sciences, UMC Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands
| | - Carlijn Bakker
- Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Brain Center, UMC Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands
| | - Nick F. Ramsey
- Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Brain Center, UMC Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands
| | - Natalia Petridou
- Radiology department, Center for Image Sciences, UMC Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands
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134
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Kwak Y, Curtis CE. Unveiling the abstract format of mnemonic representations. Neuron 2022; 110:1822-1828.e5. [PMID: 35395195 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2022.03.016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/14/2021] [Revised: 02/03/2022] [Accepted: 03/11/2022] [Indexed: 01/12/2023]
Abstract
Working memory (WM) enables information storage for future use, bridging the gap between perception and behavior. We hypothesize that WM representations are abstractions of low-level perceptual features. However, the neural nature of these putative abstract representations has thus far remained impenetrable. Here, we demonstrate that distinct visual stimuli (oriented gratings and moving dots) are flexibly recoded into the same WM format in visual and parietal cortices when that representation is useful for memory-guided behavior. Specifically, the behaviorally relevant features of the stimuli (orientation and direction) were extracted and recoded into a shared mnemonic format that takes the form of an abstract line-like pattern. We conclude that mnemonic representations are abstractions of percepts that are more efficient than and proximal to the behaviors they guide.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuna Kwak
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY 10003, USA
| | - Clayton E Curtis
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY 10003, USA; Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY 10003, USA.
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135
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Tu Y, Li X, Lu ZL, Wang Y. Diffeomorphic registration for retinotopic maps of multiple visual regions. Brain Struct Funct 2022; 227:1507-1522. [PMID: 35325293 DOI: 10.1007/s00429-022-02480-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/01/2021] [Accepted: 02/23/2022] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Retinotopic map, the mapping between visual inputs on the retina and neuronal responses on the cortical surface, is one of the central topics in vision science. Typically, human retinotopic maps are constructed by analyzing functional magnetic resonance responses to designed visual stimuli on the cortical surface. Although it is widely used in visual neuroscience, retinotopic maps are limited by the signal-to-noise ratio and spatial resolution of fMRI. One promising approach to improve the quality of retinotopic maps is to register individual subject's retinotopic maps to a retinotopic template. However, none of the existing retinotopic registration methods has explicitly quantified the diffeomorphic condition, that is, retinotopic maps shall be aligned by stretching/compressing without tearing up the cortical surface. Here, we developed Diffeomorphic Registration for Retinotopic Maps (DRRM) to simultaneously align retinotopic maps in multiple visual regions under the diffeomorphic condition. Specifically, we used the Beltrami coefficient to model the diffeomorphic condition and performed surface registration based on retinotopic coordinates. The overall framework preserves the topological condition defined in the template. We further developed a unique evaluation protocol and compared the performance of the new method with several existing registration methods on both synthetic and real datasets. The results showed that DRRM is superior to the existing methods in achieving diffeomorphic registration in synthetic and empirical data from 3T and 7T MRI systems. DRRM may improve the interpretation of low-quality retinotopic maps and facilitate applications of retinotopic maps in clinical settings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yanshuai Tu
- School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
| | - Xin Li
- School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
| | - Zhong-Lin Lu
- Division of Arts and Sciences, NYU Shanghai, Shanghai, China.,Center for Neural Science and Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, USA.,NYU-ECNU Institute of Brain and Cognitive Science, NYU Shanghai, Shanghai, China
| | - Yalin Wang
- School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA.
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136
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Gilbert G. Editorial for “Development of a Piezoelectric Actuated Tactile Stimulation Device for Population Receptive Field Mapping in Human Somatosensory Cortex with
fMRI
”. J Magn Reson Imaging 2022; 56:1066-1067. [DOI: 10.1002/jmri.28176] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/26/2022] [Accepted: 03/02/2022] [Indexed: 11/06/2022] Open
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137
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Paul JM, van Ackooij M, Ten Cate TC, Harvey BM. Numerosity tuning in human association cortices and local image contrast representations in early visual cortex. Nat Commun 2022; 13:1340. [PMID: 35292648 PMCID: PMC8924234 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-29030-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/06/2021] [Accepted: 02/21/2022] [Indexed: 01/31/2023] Open
Abstract
Human early visual cortex response amplitudes monotonically increase with numerosity (object number), regardless of object size and spacing. However, numerosity is typically considered a high-level visual or cognitive feature, while early visual responses follow image contrast in the spatial frequency domain. We find that, at fixed contrast, aggregate Fourier power (at all orientations and spatial frequencies) follows numerosity closely but nonlinearly with little effect of object size, spacing or shape. This would allow straightforward numerosity estimation from spatial frequency domain image representations. Using 7T fMRI, we show monotonic responses originate in primary visual cortex (V1) at the stimulus's retinotopic location. Responses here and in neural network models follow aggregate Fourier power more closely than numerosity. Truly numerosity tuned responses emerge after lateral occipital cortex and are independent of retinotopic location. We propose numerosity's straightforward perception and neural responses may result from the pervasive spatial frequency analyses of early visual processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jacob M Paul
- Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, Heidelberglaan 1, Utrecht, 3584 CS, Netherlands.
- Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne, Redmond Barry Building, Parkville, 3010, Victoria, Australia.
| | - Martijn van Ackooij
- Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, Heidelberglaan 1, Utrecht, 3584 CS, Netherlands
| | - Tuomas C Ten Cate
- Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, Heidelberglaan 1, Utrecht, 3584 CS, Netherlands
| | - Ben M Harvey
- Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, Heidelberglaan 1, Utrecht, 3584 CS, Netherlands
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138
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Broderick WF, Simoncelli EP, Winawer J. Mapping spatial frequency preferences across human primary visual cortex. J Vis 2022; 22:3. [PMID: 35266962 PMCID: PMC8934567 DOI: 10.1167/jov.22.4.3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/13/2023] Open
Abstract
Neurons in primate visual cortex (area V1) are tuned for spatial frequency, in a manner that depends on their position in the visual field. Several studies have examined this dependency using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), reporting preferred spatial frequencies (tuning curve peaks) of V1 voxels as a function of eccentricity, but their results differ by as much as two octaves, presumably owing to differences in stimuli, measurements, and analysis methodology. Here, we characterize spatial frequency tuning at a millimeter resolution within the human primary visual cortex, across stimulus orientation and visual field locations. We measured fMRI responses to a novel set of stimuli, constructed as sinusoidal gratings in log-polar coordinates, which include circular, radial, and spiral geometries. For each individual stimulus, the local spatial frequency varies inversely with eccentricity, and for any given location in the visual field, the full set of stimuli span a broad range of spatial frequencies and orientations. Over the measured range of eccentricities, the preferred spatial frequency is well-fit by a function that varies as the inverse of the eccentricity plus a small constant. We also find small but systematic effects of local stimulus orientation, defined in both absolute coordinates and relative to visual field location. Specifically, peak spatial frequency is higher for pinwheel than annular stimuli and for horizontal than vertical stimuli.
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Affiliation(s)
- William F. Broderick
- Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY, USA,https://wfbroderick.com/
| | - Eero P. Simoncelli
- Center for Neural Science, and Courant Institue for Mathematical Sciences, New York University, New York, NY, USA,Flatiron Institute, Simons Foundation, USA,
| | - Jonathan Winawer
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY, USA,
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139
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Rina A, Papanikolaou A, Zong X, Papageorgiou DT, Keliris GA, Smirnakis SM. Visual Motion Coherence Responses in Human Visual Cortex. Front Neurosci 2022; 16:719250. [PMID: 35310109 PMCID: PMC8924467 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2022.719250] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/02/2021] [Accepted: 01/17/2022] [Indexed: 01/24/2023] Open
Abstract
Random dot kinematograms (RDKs) have recently been used to train subjects with cortical scotomas to perform direction of motion discrimination, partially restoring visual motion perception. To study the recovery of visual perception, it is important to understand how visual areas in normal subjects and subjects with cortical scotomas respond to RDK stimuli. Studies in normal subjects have shown that blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) responses in human area hV5/MT+ increase monotonically with coherence, in general agreement with electrophysiology studies in primates. However, RDK responses in prior studies were obtained while the subject was performing fixation, not a motion discrimination condition. Furthermore, BOLD responses were gauged against a baseline condition of uniform illumination or static dots, potentially decreasing the specificity of responses for the spatial integration of local motion signals (motion coherence). Here, we revisit this question starting from a baseline RDK condition of no coherence, thereby isolating the component of BOLD response due specifically to the spatial integration of local motion signals. In agreement with prior studies, we found that responses in the area hV5/MT+ of healthy subjects were monotonically increasing when subjects fixated without performing a motion discrimination task. In contrast, when subjects were performing an RDK direction of motion discrimination task, responses in the area hV5/MT+ remained flat, changing minimally, if at all, as a function of motion coherence. A similar pattern of responses was seen in the area hV5/MT+ of subjects with dense cortical scotomas performing direction of motion discrimination for RDKs presented inside the scotoma. Passive RDK presentation within the scotoma elicited no significant hV5/MT+ responses. These observations shed further light on how visual cortex responses behave as a function of motion coherence, helping to prepare the ground for future studies using these methods to study visual system recovery after injury.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andriani Rina
- Department of Neurology Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Jamaica Plain Veterans Administration Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
- Visual and Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Science, University of Tübingen, Tuebingen, Germany
| | - Amalia Papanikolaou
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Institute of Behavioral Neuroscience, University College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Xiaopeng Zong
- Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, United States
| | - Dorina T. Papageorgiou
- Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Neuroscience, Psychiatry Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, United States
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Neuroengineering Research Initiative and Applied Physics, Rice University, Houston, TX, United States
| | - Georgios A. Keliris
- Bio-Imaging Lab, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
- Max-Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Physiology of Cognitive Processes, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Stelios M. Smirnakis
- Department of Neurology Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Jamaica Plain Veterans Administration Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
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140
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Ho ML, Schwarzkopf DS. The human primary visual cortex (V1) encodes the perceived position of static but not moving objects. Commun Biol 2022; 5:181. [PMID: 35233067 PMCID: PMC8888673 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-022-03136-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/01/2021] [Accepted: 02/03/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Brain activity in retinotopic cortex reflects illusory changes in stimulus position. Is this neural signature a general code for apparent position? Here we show that responses in primary visual cortex (V1) are consistent with perception of the Muller-Lyer illusion; however, we found no such signature for another striking illusion, the curveball effect. This demonstrates that V1 does not encode apparent position per se.
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Affiliation(s)
- Man-Ling Ho
- UCL Experimental Psychology, 26 Bedford Way, London, WC1H 0AP, UK.
| | - D Samuel Schwarzkopf
- UCL Experimental Psychology, 26 Bedford Way, London, WC1H 0AP, UK
- School of Optometry & Vision Science, University of Auckland, 85 Park Road, Auckland, New Zealand
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141
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Norman-Haignere SV, Long LK, Devinsky O, Doyle W, Irobunda I, Merricks EM, Feldstein NA, McKhann GM, Schevon CA, Flinker A, Mesgarani N. Multiscale temporal integration organizes hierarchical computation in human auditory cortex. Nat Hum Behav 2022; 6:455-469. [PMID: 35145280 PMCID: PMC8957490 DOI: 10.1038/s41562-021-01261-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/30/2020] [Accepted: 11/18/2021] [Indexed: 01/11/2023]
Abstract
To derive meaning from sound, the brain must integrate information across many timescales. What computations underlie multiscale integration in human auditory cortex? Evidence suggests that auditory cortex analyses sound using both generic acoustic representations (for example, spectrotemporal modulation tuning) and category-specific computations, but the timescales over which these putatively distinct computations integrate remain unclear. To answer this question, we developed a general method to estimate sensory integration windows-the time window when stimuli alter the neural response-and applied our method to intracranial recordings from neurosurgical patients. We show that human auditory cortex integrates hierarchically across diverse timescales spanning from ~50 to 400 ms. Moreover, we find that neural populations with short and long integration windows exhibit distinct functional properties: short-integration electrodes (less than ~200 ms) show prominent spectrotemporal modulation selectivity, while long-integration electrodes (greater than ~200 ms) show prominent category selectivity. These findings reveal how multiscale integration organizes auditory computation in the human brain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sam V Norman-Haignere
- Zuckerman Mind, Brain, Behavior Institute, Columbia University,HHMI Postdoctoral Fellow of the Life Sciences Research Foundation
| | - Laura K. Long
- Zuckerman Mind, Brain, Behavior Institute, Columbia University,Doctoral Program in Neurobiology and Behavior, Columbia University
| | - Orrin Devinsky
- Department of Neurology, NYU Langone Medical Center,Comprehensive Epilepsy Center, NYU Langone Medical Center
| | - Werner Doyle
- Comprehensive Epilepsy Center, NYU Langone Medical Center,Department of Neurosurgery, NYU Langone Medical Center
| | - Ifeoma Irobunda
- Department of Neurology, Columbia University Irving Medical Center
| | | | - Neil A. Feldstein
- Department of Neurological Surgery, Columbia University Irving Medical Center
| | - Guy M. McKhann
- Department of Neurological Surgery, Columbia University Irving Medical Center
| | | | - Adeen Flinker
- Department of Neurology, NYU Langone Medical Center,Comprehensive Epilepsy Center, NYU Langone Medical Center,Department of Biomedical Engineering, NYU Tandon School of Engineering
| | - Nima Mesgarani
- Zuckerman Mind, Brain, Behavior Institute, Columbia University,Doctoral Program in Neurobiology and Behavior, Columbia University,Department of Electrical Engineering, Columbia University
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142
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Vinke LN, Bloem IM, Ling S. Saturating Nonlinearities of Contrast Response in Human Visual Cortex. J Neurosci 2022; 42:1292-1302. [PMID: 34921048 PMCID: PMC8883860 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.0106-21.2021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/17/2021] [Revised: 11/29/2021] [Accepted: 12/02/2021] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Response nonlinearities are ubiquitous throughout the brain, especially within sensory cortices where changes in stimulus intensity typically produce compressed responses. Although this relationship is well established in electrophysiological measurements, it remains controversial whether the same nonlinearities hold for population-based measurements obtained with human fMRI. We propose that these purported disparities are not contingent on measurement type and are instead largely dependent on the visual system state at the time of interrogation. We show that deploying a contrast adaptation paradigm permits reliable measurements of saturating sigmoidal contrast response functions (10 participants, 7 female). When not controlling the adaptation state, our results coincide with previous fMRI studies, yielding nonsaturating, largely linear contrast responses. These findings highlight the important role of adaptation in manifesting measurable nonlinear responses within human visual cortex, reconciling discrepancies reported in vision neuroscience, re-establishing the qualitative relationship between stimulus intensity and response across different neural measures and the concerted study of cortical gain control.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Nonlinear stimulus-response relationships govern many essential brain functions, ranging from the sensory to cognitive level. Certain core response properties previously shown to be nonlinear with nonhuman electrophysiology recordings have yet to be reliably measured with human neuroimaging, prompting uncertainty and reconsideration. The results of this study stand to reconcile these incongruencies in the vision neurosciences, demonstrating the profound impact adaptation can have on brain activation throughout the early visual cortex. Moving forward, these findings facilitate the study of modulatory influences on sensory processing (i.e., arousal and attention) and help establish a closer link between neural recordings in animals and hemodynamic measurements from human fMRI, resuming a concerted effort to understand operations in the mammalian cortex.
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Affiliation(s)
- Louis N Vinke
- Graduate Program for Neuroscience, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215
- Center for Systems Neuroscience, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215
- Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02114
- Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Charlestown, Massachusetts 02129
| | - Ilona M Bloem
- Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215
- Center for Systems Neuroscience, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York City, New York 10012
| | - Sam Ling
- Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215
- Center for Systems Neuroscience, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215
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143
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Zhang J, Li C, Liu G, Min M, Wang C, Li J, Wang Y, Yan H, Zuo Z, Huang W, Chen H. A CNN-transformer hybrid approach for decoding visual neural activity into text. COMPUTER METHODS AND PROGRAMS IN BIOMEDICINE 2022; 214:106586. [PMID: 34963092 DOI: 10.1016/j.cmpb.2021.106586] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/16/2021] [Revised: 11/19/2021] [Accepted: 12/12/2021] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Most studies used neural activities evoked by linguistic stimuli such as phrases or sentences to decode the language structure. However, compared to linguistic stimuli, it is more common for the human brain to perceive the outside world through non-linguistic stimuli such as natural images, so only relying on linguistic stimuli cannot fully understand the information perceived by the human brain. To address this, an end-to-end mapping model between visual neural activities evoked by non-linguistic stimuli and visual contents is demanded. METHODS Inspired by the success of the Transformer network in neural machine translation and the convolutional neural network (CNN) in computer vision, here a CNN-Transformer hybrid language decoding model is constructed in an end-to-end fashion to decode functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) signals evoked by natural images into descriptive texts about the visual stimuli. Specifically, this model first encodes a semantic sequence extracted by a two-layer 1D CNN from the multi-time visual neural activity into a multi-level abstract representation, then decodes this representation, step by step, into an English sentence. RESULTS Experimental results show that the decoded texts are semantically consistent with the corresponding ground truth annotations. Additionally, by varying the encoding and decoding layers and modifying the original positional encoding of the Transformer, we found that a specific architecture of the Transformer is required in this work. CONCLUSIONS The study results indicate that the proposed model can decode the visual neural activities evoked by natural images into descriptive text about the visual stimuli in the form of sentences. Hence, it may be considered as a potential computer-aided tool for neuroscientists to understand the neural mechanism of visual information processing in the human brain in the future.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jiang Zhang
- College of Electrical Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China
| | - Chen Li
- College of Electrical Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China
| | - Ganwanming Liu
- College of Electrical Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China
| | - Min Min
- College of Electrical Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China
| | - Chong Wang
- The Center of Psychosomatic Medicine, Sichuan Provincial Center for Mental Health, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, China; High-Field Magnetic Resonance Brain Imaging Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China
| | - Jiyi Li
- The Center of Psychosomatic Medicine, Sichuan Provincial Center for Mental Health, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, China
| | - Yuting Wang
- The Center of Psychosomatic Medicine, Sichuan Provincial Center for Mental Health, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, China; High-Field Magnetic Resonance Brain Imaging Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China
| | - Hongmei Yan
- High-Field Magnetic Resonance Brain Imaging Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China
| | - Zhentao Zuo
- State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Beijing MR Center for Brain Research, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
| | - Wei Huang
- The Center of Psychosomatic Medicine, Sichuan Provincial Center for Mental Health, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, China; High-Field Magnetic Resonance Brain Imaging Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China.
| | - Huafu Chen
- The Center of Psychosomatic Medicine, Sichuan Provincial Center for Mental Health, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, China; High-Field Magnetic Resonance Brain Imaging Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China.
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144
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Pastukhov A, Carbon CC. Change not State: Perceptual coupling in multistable displays reflects transient bias induced by perceptual change. Psychon Bull Rev 2022; 29:97-107. [PMID: 34341970 PMCID: PMC8858312 DOI: 10.3758/s13423-021-01960-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 05/20/2021] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
We investigated how changes in dynamic spatial context influence visual perception. Specifically, we reexamined the perceptual coupling phenomenon when two multistable displays viewed simultaneously tend to be in the same dominant state and switch in accord. Current models assume this interaction reflecting mutual bias produced by a dominant perceptual state. In contrast, we demonstrate that influence of spatial context is strongest when perception changes. First, we replicated earlier work using bistable kinetic-depth effect displays, then extended it by employing asynchronous presentation to show that perceptual coupling cannot be accounted for by the static context provided by perceptually dominant states. Next, we demonstrated that perceptual coupling reflects transient bias induced by perceptual change, both in ambiguous and disambiguated displays. We used a hierarchical Bayesian model to characterize its timing, demonstrating that the transient bias is induced 50-70 ms after the exogenous trigger event and decays within ~200-300 ms. Both endogenous and exogenous switches led to quantitatively and qualitatively similar perceptual consequences, activating similar perceptual reevaluation mechanisms within a spatial surround. We explain how they can be understood within a transient selective visual attention framework or using local lateral connections within sensory representations. We suggest that observed perceptual effects reflect general mechanisms of perceptual inference for dynamic visual scene perception.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexander Pastukhov
- Department of General Psychology and Methodology, University of Bamberg, Bamberg, Bavaria, Germany.
- Research Group EPÆG (Ergonomics, Psychological Æsthetics, Gestalt), Bamberg, Bavaria, Germany.
| | - Claus-Christian Carbon
- Department of General Psychology and Methodology, University of Bamberg, Bamberg, Bavaria, Germany
- Research Group EPÆG (Ergonomics, Psychological Æsthetics, Gestalt), Bamberg, Bavaria, Germany
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145
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Klimova M, Ling S. Davida reorients intermediate visual processing. Cogn Neuropsychol 2022; 39:88-91. [PMID: 35588248 PMCID: PMC10928806 DOI: 10.1080/02643294.2022.2052719] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/23/2021] [Revised: 02/11/2022] [Accepted: 03/08/2022] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Michaela Klimova
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA
- Center for Systems Neuroscience, Boston University, Boston, MA
| | - Sam Ling
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA
- Center for Systems Neuroscience, Boston University, Boston, MA
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146
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Normal Retinotopy in Primary Visual Cortex in a Congenital Complete Unilateral Lesion of Lateral Geniculate Nucleus in Human: A Case Study. Int J Mol Sci 2022; 23:ijms23031055. [PMID: 35162977 PMCID: PMC8835673 DOI: 10.3390/ijms23031055] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/31/2021] [Revised: 01/14/2022] [Accepted: 01/15/2022] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Impairment of the geniculostriate pathway results in scotomas in the corresponding part of the visual field. Here, we present a case of patient IB with left eye microphthalmia and with lesions in most of the left geniculostriate pathway, including the Lateral Geniculate Nucleus (LGN). Despite the severe lesions, the patient has a very narrow scotoma in the peripheral part of the lower-right-hemifield only (beyond 15° of eccentricity) and complete visual field representation in the primary visual cortex. Population receptive field mapping (pRF) of the patient’s visual field reveals orderly eccentricity maps together with contralateral activation in both hemispheres. With diffusion tractography, we revealed connections between superior colliculus (SC) and cortical structures in the hemisphere affected by the lesions, which could mediate the retinotopic reorganization at the cortical level. Our results indicate an astonishing case for the flexibility of the developing retinotopic maps where the contralateral thalamus receives fibers from both the nasal and temporal retinae.
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147
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Beh A, McGraw PV, Webb BS, Schluppeck D. Linking Multi-Modal MRI to Clinical Measures of Visual Field Loss After Stroke. Front Neurosci 2022; 15:737215. [PMID: 35069094 PMCID: PMC8766758 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2021.737215] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/06/2021] [Accepted: 12/03/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Loss of vision across large parts of the visual field is a common and devastating complication of cerebral strokes. In the clinic, this loss is quantified by measuring the sensitivity threshold across the field of vision using static perimetry. These methods rely on the ability of the patient to report the presence of lights in particular locations. While perimetry provides important information about the intactness of the visual field, the approach has some shortcomings. For example, it cannot distinguish where in the visual pathway the key processing deficit is located. In contrast, brain imaging can provide important information about anatomy, connectivity, and function of the visual pathway following stroke. In particular, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and analysis of population receptive fields (pRF) can reveal mismatches between clinical perimetry and maps of cortical areas that still respond to visual stimuli after stroke. Here, we demonstrate how information from different brain imaging modalities-visual field maps derived from fMRI, lesion definitions from anatomical scans, and white matter tracts from diffusion weighted MRI data-provides a more complete picture of vision loss. For any given location in the visual field, the combination of anatomical and functional information can help identify whether vision loss is due to absence of gray matter tissue or likely due to white matter disconnection from other cortical areas. We present a combined imaging acquisition and visual stimulus protocol, together with a description of the analysis methodology, and apply it to datasets from four stroke survivors with homonymous field loss (two with hemianopia, two with quadrantanopia). For researchers trying to understand recovery of vision after stroke and clinicians seeking to stratify patients into different treatment pathways, this approach combines multiple, convergent sources of data to characterize the extent of the stroke damage. We show that such an approach gives a more comprehensive measure of residual visual capacity-in two particular respects: which locations in the visual field should be targeted and what kind of visual attributes are most suited for rehabilitation.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Denis Schluppeck
- School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom
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148
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Yoo AH, Bolaños A, Hallenbeck GE, Rahmati M, Sprague TC, Curtis CE. Behavioral Prioritization Enhances Working Memory Precision and Neural Population Gain. J Cogn Neurosci 2022; 34:365-379. [PMID: 34942647 PMCID: PMC9017245 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_01804] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
Abstract
Humans allocate visual working memory (WM) resource according to behavioral relevance, resulting in more precise memories for more important items. Theoretically, items may be maintained by feature-tuned neural populations, where the relative gain of the populations encoding each item determines precision. To test this hypothesis, we compared the amplitudes of delay period activity in the different parts of retinotopic maps representing each of several WM items, predicting the amplitudes would track behavioral priority. Using fMRI, we scanned participants while they remembered the location of multiple items over a WM delay and then reported the location of one probed item using a memory-guided saccade. Importantly, items were not equally probable to be probed (0.6, 0.3, 0.1, 0.0), which was indicated with a precue. We analyzed fMRI activity in 10 visual field maps in occipital, parietal, and frontal cortex known to be important for visual WM. In early visual cortex, but not association cortex, the amplitude of BOLD activation within voxels corresponding to the retinotopic location of visual WM items increased with the priority of the item. Interestingly, these results were contrasted with a common finding that higher-level brain regions had greater delay period activity, demonstrating a dissociation between the absolute amount of activity in a brain area and the activity of different spatially selective populations within it. These results suggest that the distribution of WM resources according to priority sculpts the relative gains of neural populations that encode items, offering a neural mechanism for how prioritization impacts memory precision.
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149
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Ta D, Tu Y, Lu ZL, Wang Y. Quantitative characterization of the human retinotopic map based on quasiconformal mapping. Med Image Anal 2022; 75:102230. [PMID: 34666194 PMCID: PMC8678293 DOI: 10.1016/j.media.2021.102230] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/12/2021] [Revised: 07/11/2021] [Accepted: 09/10/2021] [Indexed: 01/03/2023]
Abstract
The retinotopic map depicts the cortical neurons' response to visual stimuli on the retina and has contributed significantly to our understanding of human visual system. Although recent advances in high field functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) have made it possible to generate the in vivo retinotopic map with great detail, quantifying the map remains challenging. Existing quantification methods do not preserve surface topology and often introduce large geometric distortions to the map. In this study, we developed a new framework based on computational conformal geometry and quasiconformal Teichmüller theory to quantify the retinotopic map. Specifically, we introduced a general pipeline, consisting of cortical surface conformal parameterization, surface-spline-based cortical activation signal smoothing, and vertex-wise Beltrami coefficient-based map description. After correcting most of the violations of the topological conditions, the result was a "Beltrami coefficient map" (BCM) that rigorously and completely characterizes the retinotopic map by quantifying the local quasiconformal mapping distortion at each visual field location. The BCM provided topological and fully reconstructable retinotopic maps. We successfully applied the new framework to analyze the V1 retinotopic maps from the Human Connectome Project (n=181), the largest state of the art retinotopy dataset currently available. With unprecedented precision, we found that the V1 retinotopic map was quasiconformal and the local mapping distortions were similar across observers. The new framework can be applied to other visual areas and retinotopic maps of individuals with and without eye diseases, and improve our understanding of visual cortical organization in normal and clinical populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Duyan Ta
- School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
| | - Yanshuai Tu
- School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
| | - Zhong-Lin Lu
- Division of Arts and Sciences, New York University Shanghai, Shanghai, China; Center for Neural Science and Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY, USA; NYU-ECNU Institute of Brain and Cognitive Science at NYU Shanghai, Shanghai, China
| | - Yalin Wang
- School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA.
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150
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Oliveira ÍAF, Cai Y, Hofstetter S, Siero JCW, van der Zwaag W, Dumoulin SO. Comparing BOLD and VASO-CBV population receptive field estimates in human visual cortex. Neuroimage 2021; 248:118868. [PMID: 34974115 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118868] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/28/2021] [Revised: 12/20/2021] [Accepted: 12/29/2021] [Indexed: 10/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Vascular Space Occupancy (VASO) is an alternative fMRI approach based on changes in Cerebral Blood Volume (CBV). VASO-CBV fMRI can provide higher spatial specificity than the blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) method because the CBV response is thought to be limited to smaller vessels. To investigate how this technique compares to BOLD fMRI for cognitive neuroscience applications, we compared population receptive field (pRF) mapping estimates between BOLD and VASO-CBV. We hypothesized that VASO-CBV would elicit distinct pRF properties compared to BOLD. Specifically, since pRF size estimates also depend on vascular sources, we hypothesized that reduced vascular blurring might yield narrower pRFs for VASO-CBV measurements. We used a VASO sequence with a double readout 3D EPI sequence at 7T to simultaneously measure VASO-CBV and BOLD responses in the visual cortex while participants viewed conventional pRF mapping stimuli. Both VASO-CBV and BOLD images show similar eccentricity and polar angle maps across all participants. Compared to BOLD-based measurements, VASO-CBV yielded lower tSNR and variance explained. The pRF size changed with eccentricity similarly for VASO-CBV and BOLD, and the pRF size estimates were similar for VASO-CBV and BOLD, even when we equate variance explained between VASO-CBV and BOLD. This result suggests that the vascular component of the pRF size is not dominating in either VASO-CBV or BOLD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ícaro A F Oliveira
- Spinoza Centre for Neuroimaging, Meibergdreef 75, Amsterdam 1105 BK, the Netherland; Experimental and Applied Psychology, VU University, Amsterdam, the Netherland.
| | - Yuxuan Cai
- Spinoza Centre for Neuroimaging, Meibergdreef 75, Amsterdam 1105 BK, the Netherland; Experimental and Applied Psychology, VU University, Amsterdam, the Netherland
| | - Shir Hofstetter
- Spinoza Centre for Neuroimaging, Meibergdreef 75, Amsterdam 1105 BK, the Netherland
| | - Jeroen C W Siero
- Spinoza Centre for Neuroimaging, Meibergdreef 75, Amsterdam 1105 BK, the Netherland; Radiology, Utrecht Center for Image Sciences, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, the Netherland
| | | | - Serge O Dumoulin
- Spinoza Centre for Neuroimaging, Meibergdreef 75, Amsterdam 1105 BK, the Netherland; Experimental and Applied Psychology, VU University, Amsterdam, the Netherland; Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherland
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