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Wang J, Du X, Yao S, Li L, Tanigawa H, Zhang X, Roe AW. Mesoscale organization of ventral and dorsal visual pathways in macaque monkey revealed by 7T fMRI. Prog Neurobiol 2024; 234:102584. [PMID: 38309458 DOI: 10.1016/j.pneurobio.2024.102584] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/17/2023] [Revised: 01/26/2024] [Accepted: 01/29/2024] [Indexed: 02/05/2024]
Abstract
In human and nonhuman primate brains, columnar (mesoscale) organization has been demonstrated to underlie both lower and higher order aspects of visual information processing. Previous studies have focused on identifying functional preferences of mesoscale domains in specific areas; but there has been little understanding of how mesoscale domains may cooperatively respond to single visual stimuli across dorsal and ventral pathways. Here, we have developed ultrahigh-field 7 T fMRI methods to enable simultaneous mapping, in individual macaque monkeys, of response in both dorsal and ventral pathways to single simple color and motion stimuli. We provide the first evidence that anatomical V2 cytochrome oxidase-stained stripes are well aligned with fMRI maps of V2 stripes, settling a long-standing controversy. In the ventral pathway, a systematic array of paired color and luminance processing domains across V4 was revealed, suggesting a novel organization for surface information processing. In the dorsal pathway, in addition to high quality motion direction maps of MT, MST and V3A, alternating color and motion direction domains in V3 are revealed. As well, submillimeter motion domains were observed in peripheral LIPd and LIPv. In sum, our study provides a novel global snapshot of how mesoscale networks in the ventral and dorsal visual pathways form the organizational basis of visual objection recognition and vision for action.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jianbao Wang
- Department of Neurosurgery of the Second Affiliated Hospital, Interdisciplinary Institute of Neuroscience and Technology, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China; MOE Frontier Science Center for Brain Science and Brain-machine Integration, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Xiao Du
- Department of Neurosurgery of the Second Affiliated Hospital, Interdisciplinary Institute of Neuroscience and Technology, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Songping Yao
- Department of Neurosurgery of the Second Affiliated Hospital, Interdisciplinary Institute of Neuroscience and Technology, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China; Key Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Ministry of Education, College of Biomedical Engineering & Instrument Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Lihui Li
- Department of Neurosurgery of the Second Affiliated Hospital, Interdisciplinary Institute of Neuroscience and Technology, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China; Key Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Ministry of Education, College of Biomedical Engineering & Instrument Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Hisashi Tanigawa
- Department of Neurosurgery of the Second Affiliated Hospital, Interdisciplinary Institute of Neuroscience and Technology, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China; MOE Frontier Science Center for Brain Science and Brain-machine Integration, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Xiaotong Zhang
- Department of Neurosurgery of the Second Affiliated Hospital, Interdisciplinary Institute of Neuroscience and Technology, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China; Key Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Ministry of Education, College of Biomedical Engineering & Instrument Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China; MOE Frontier Science Center for Brain Science and Brain-machine Integration, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China; College of Electrical Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
| | - Anna Wang Roe
- Department of Neurosurgery of the Second Affiliated Hospital, Interdisciplinary Institute of Neuroscience and Technology, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China; Key Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Ministry of Education, College of Biomedical Engineering & Instrument Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China; MOE Frontier Science Center for Brain Science and Brain-machine Integration, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
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Singer Y, Taylor L, Willmore BDB, King AJ, Harper NS. Hierarchical temporal prediction captures motion processing along the visual pathway. eLife 2023; 12:e52599. [PMID: 37844199 PMCID: PMC10629830 DOI: 10.7554/elife.52599] [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: 10/14/2019] [Accepted: 10/04/2023] [Indexed: 10/18/2023] Open
Abstract
Visual neurons respond selectively to features that become increasingly complex from the eyes to the cortex. Retinal neurons prefer flashing spots of light, primary visual cortical (V1) neurons prefer moving bars, and those in higher cortical areas favor complex features like moving textures. Previously, we showed that V1 simple cell tuning can be accounted for by a basic model implementing temporal prediction - representing features that predict future sensory input from past input (Singer et al., 2018). Here, we show that hierarchical application of temporal prediction can capture how tuning properties change across at least two levels of the visual system. This suggests that the brain does not efficiently represent all incoming information; instead, it selectively represents sensory inputs that help in predicting the future. When applied hierarchically, temporal prediction extracts time-varying features that depend on increasingly high-level statistics of the sensory input.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yosef Singer
- Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of OxfordOxfordUnited Kingdom
| | - Luke Taylor
- Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of OxfordOxfordUnited Kingdom
| | - Ben DB Willmore
- Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of OxfordOxfordUnited Kingdom
| | - Andrew J King
- Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of OxfordOxfordUnited Kingdom
| | - Nicol S Harper
- Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of OxfordOxfordUnited Kingdom
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Kennedy B, Bex P, Hunter DG, Nasr S. Two fine-scale channels for encoding motion and stereopsis within the human magnocellular stream. Prog Neurobiol 2023; 220:102374. [PMID: 36403864 PMCID: PMC9832588 DOI: 10.1016/j.pneurobio.2022.102374] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/20/2022] [Revised: 10/16/2022] [Accepted: 11/15/2022] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
In humans and non-human primates (NHPs), motion and stereopsis are processed within fine-scale cortical sites, including V2 thick stripes and their extensions into areas V3 and V3A that are believed to be under the influence of magnocellular stream. However, in both species, the relative functional organization (overlapping vs. none overlapping) of these sites remains unclear. Using high-resolution functional MRI (fMRI), we found evidence for two minimally-overlapping channels within human extrastriate areas that contribute to processing motion and stereopsis. Across multiple experiments that included different stimuli (random dots, gratings, and natural scenes), the functional selectivity of these channels for motion vs. stereopsis remained consistent. Furthermore, an analysis of resting-state functional connectivity revealed stronger functional connectivity within the two channels rather than between them. This finding provides a new perspective toward the mesoscale organization of the magnocellular stream within the human extrastriate visual cortex, beyond our previous understanding based on animal models.
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Affiliation(s)
- B Kennedy
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, United States
| | - P Bex
- Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, United States
| | - D G Hunter
- Department of Ophthalmology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States; Department of Ophthalmology, Boston's Children Hospital, Boston, MA, United States
| | - S Nasr
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, United States; Department of Radiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States.
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Functionally specific and sparse domain-based micro-networks in monkey V1 and V2. Curr Biol 2022; 32:2797-2809.e3. [PMID: 35623347 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2022.04.095] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2022] [Revised: 04/05/2022] [Accepted: 04/28/2022] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
The cerebral cortices of human and nonhuman primate brains are characterized by submillimeter functional domains. However, little is known about the connections of single functional domains. Here, in macaque monkey visual cortex, we have developed a targeted focal electrical stimulation method, coupled with functional optical imaging, to map cortical networks with submillimeter precision in vivo. We find that single functional domains are a part of highly specific and sparse intra-areal and inter-areal micro-networks. Across color-related and orientation-related functionalities, these micro-networks exhibit parallel connection patterns, suggesting a common domain-based architecture. Moreover, these micro-networks shift topographically at a submillimeter scale, suggesting that they serve as a fundamental unit for cortical information processing. Our findings establish a domain-based connectional architecture in the primate brain and present new constraints for cortical map representation.
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Liu Y, Hu J, Yao S, Zhou Q, Li H, Takahata T. Multiple Visuotopically Organized Subdivisions of the Lateral Pulvinar/Central Lateral Inferior Pulvinar Project into Thin and Thick Stripe Compartments of V2 in Macaques. Cereb Cortex 2021; 31:3788-3803. [PMID: 33772553 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhab049] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/17/2020] [Revised: 01/30/2021] [Accepted: 02/13/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The lateral and central lateral inferior pulvinar (PL/PIcl) of primates has been implicated in playing an important role in visual processing, but its physiological and anatomical characteristics remain to be elucidated. It has been suggested that there are two complete visuotopic maps in the PL/PIcl, each of which sends afferents into V2 and V4 in primates. Given that functionally distinct thin and thick stripes of V2 both receive inputs from the PL/PIcl, this raises the possibility of a presence of parallel segregated pathways within the PL/PIcl. To address this question, we selectively injected three types of retrograde tracers (CTB-488, CTB-555, and BDA) into thin or thick stripes in V2 and examined labeling in the PL/PIcl in macaques. As a result, we found that every cluster of retrograde labeling in the PL/PIcl included all three types of signals next to each other, suggesting that thin stripe- and thick stripe-projecting compartments are not segregated into domains. Unexpectedly, we found at least five topographically organized retrograde labeling clusters in the PL/PIcl, indicating the presence of more than two V2-projecting maps. Our results suggest that the PL/PIcl exhibits greater compartmentalization than previously thought. They may be functionally similar but participate in multiple cortico-pulvinar-cortical loops.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ye Liu
- Department of Neurology of the Second Affiliated Hospital, Interdisciplinary Institute of Neuroscience and Technology, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310029, P. R. China
| | - Jiaming Hu
- Department of Neurology of the Second Affiliated Hospital, Interdisciplinary Institute of Neuroscience and Technology, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310029, P. R. China
| | - Songping Yao
- Department of Neurology of the Second Affiliated Hospital, Interdisciplinary Institute of Neuroscience and Technology, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310029, P. R. China.,Key Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Ministry of Education, College of Biomedical Engineering and Instrument Science, Zhejiang University,Hangzhou 310029, P. R. China
| | - Qiuying Zhou
- Department of Neurology of the Second Affiliated Hospital, Interdisciplinary Institute of Neuroscience and Technology, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310029, P. R. China
| | - Hangqi Li
- Department of Neurology of the Second Affiliated Hospital, Interdisciplinary Institute of Neuroscience and Technology, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310029, P. R. China.,Key Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Ministry of Education, College of Biomedical Engineering and Instrument Science, Zhejiang University,Hangzhou 310029, P. R. China
| | - Toru Takahata
- Department of Neurology of the Second Affiliated Hospital, Interdisciplinary Institute of Neuroscience and Technology, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310029, P. R. China.,Key Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Ministry of Education, College of Biomedical Engineering and Instrument Science, Zhejiang University,Hangzhou 310029, P. R. China
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Ma H, Li P, Hu J, Cai X, Song Q, Lu HD. Processing of motion boundary orientation in macaque V2. eLife 2021; 10:61317. [PMID: 33759760 PMCID: PMC8026216 DOI: 10.7554/elife.61317] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/22/2020] [Accepted: 03/24/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Human and nonhuman primates are good at identifying an object based on its motion, a task that is believed to be carried out by the ventral visual pathway. However, the neural mechanisms underlying such ability remains unclear. We trained macaque monkeys to do orientation discrimination for motion boundaries (MBs) and recorded neuronal response in area V2 with microelectrode arrays. We found 10.9% of V2 neurons exhibited robust orientation selectivity to MBs, and their responses correlated with monkeys' orientation-discrimination performances. Furthermore, the responses of V2 direction-selective neurons recorded at the same time showed correlated activity with MB neurons for particular MB stimuli, suggesting that these motion-sensitive neurons made specific functional contributions to MB discrimination tasks. Our findings support the view that V2 plays a critical role in MB analysis and may achieve this through a neural circuit within area V2.
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Affiliation(s)
- Heng Ma
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Pengcheng Li
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Jiaming Hu
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Xingya Cai
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Qianling Song
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Haidong D Lu
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
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Separation in the visual field has divergent effects on discriminating the speed and the direction of motion. Curr Biol 2020; 30:R1250-R1251. [PMID: 33080191 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.08.085] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
Local motion in a visual scene allows the detection of prey or predator and predicts their future positions. Relative motion segregates objects and reveals their 3D relationships. 'Optic flow' - the motion of texture across the field - guides locomotion and balance. Given these several uses of visually perceived motion, it is unsurprising that many species have evolved hard-wired neural mechanisms to extract motion as a primitive feature of the visual world [1]. In the cortex (e.g. [2-4]), and even the retina [5], of primates, cells are found that respond selectively according to direction of motion. In visual areas V1 and MT, some directionally selective cells are also tuned for the second attribute of motion, speed [3]. It might be thought that the brain derives a single velocity signal from the activity in this population of neurons - since speed and direction must often be combined to predict an object's future position or to derive a 3D structure. However, we report here a striking difference in discrimination of the two attributes: Thresholds for direction, but not those for speed, increase with the spatial separation of the stimuli.
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Hu JM, Qian MZ, Tanigawa H, Song XM, Roe AW. Focal Electrical Stimulation of Cortical Functional Networks. Cereb Cortex 2020; 30:5532-5543. [PMID: 32483588 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhaa136] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/05/2019] [Revised: 03/30/2020] [Accepted: 04/27/2020] [Indexed: 01/11/2023] Open
Abstract
Abstract
Traditional electrical stimulation of brain tissue typically affects relatively large volumes of tissue spanning multiple millimeters. This low spatial resolution stimulation results in nonspecific functional effects. In addition, a primary shortcoming of these designs was the failure to take advantage of inherent functional organization in the cerebral cortex. Here, we describe a new method to electrically stimulate the brain which achieves selective targeting of single feature-specific domains in visual cortex. We provide evidence that this paradigm achieves mesoscale, functional network-specificity, and intensity dependence in a way that mimics visual stimulation. Application of this approach to known feature domains (such as color, orientation, motion, and depth) in visual cortex may lead to important functional improvements in the specificity and sophistication of brain stimulation methods and has implications for visual cortical prosthetic design.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jia Ming Hu
- Department of Neurology of the Second Affiliated Hospital, Interdisciplinary Institute of Neuroscience and Technology, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310029, China
| | - Mei Zhen Qian
- Department of Neurology of the Second Affiliated Hospital, Interdisciplinary Institute of Neuroscience and Technology, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310029, China
| | - Hisashi Tanigawa
- Department of Neurology of the Second Affiliated Hospital, Interdisciplinary Institute of Neuroscience and Technology, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310029, China
| | - Xue Mei Song
- Department of Neurology of the Second Affiliated Hospital, Interdisciplinary Institute of Neuroscience and Technology, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310029, China
| | - Anna Wang Roe
- Department of Neurology of the Second Affiliated Hospital, Interdisciplinary Institute of Neuroscience and Technology, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310029, China
- Key Laboratory of Biomedical Engineering of Ministry of Education, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Hangzhou 310029, China
- Division of Neuroscience, Oregon National Primate Research Center, Oregon Health and Science University, Beaverton, OR 97006 USA
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Vanni S, Hokkanen H, Werner F, Angelucci A. Anatomy and Physiology of Macaque Visual Cortical Areas V1, V2, and V5/MT: Bases for Biologically Realistic Models. Cereb Cortex 2020; 30:3483-3517. [PMID: 31897474 PMCID: PMC7233004 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhz322] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/19/2019] [Revised: 12/02/2019] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
The cerebral cortex of primates encompasses multiple anatomically and physiologically distinct areas processing visual information. Areas V1, V2, and V5/MT are conserved across mammals and are central for visual behavior. To facilitate the generation of biologically accurate computational models of primate early visual processing, here we provide an overview of over 350 published studies of these three areas in the genus Macaca, whose visual system provides the closest model for human vision. The literature reports 14 anatomical connection types from the lateral geniculate nucleus of the thalamus to V1 having distinct layers of origin or termination, and 194 connection types between V1, V2, and V5, forming multiple parallel and interacting visual processing streams. Moreover, within V1, there are reports of 286 and 120 types of intrinsic excitatory and inhibitory connections, respectively. Physiologically, tuning of neuronal responses to 11 types of visual stimulus parameters has been consistently reported. Overall, the optimal spatial frequency (SF) of constituent neurons decreases with cortical hierarchy. Moreover, V5 neurons are distinct from neurons in other areas for their higher direction selectivity, higher contrast sensitivity, higher temporal frequency tuning, and wider SF bandwidth. We also discuss currently unavailable data that could be useful for biologically accurate models.
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Affiliation(s)
- Simo Vanni
- HUS Neurocenter, Department of Neurology, Helsinki University Hospital, 00290 Helsinki, Finland
- Department of Neurosciences, University of Helsinki, 00100 Helsinki, Finland
| | - Henri Hokkanen
- HUS Neurocenter, Department of Neurology, Helsinki University Hospital, 00290 Helsinki, Finland
- Department of Neurosciences, University of Helsinki, 00100 Helsinki, Finland
| | - Francesca Werner
- HUS Neurocenter, Department of Neurology, Helsinki University Hospital, 00290 Helsinki, Finland
- Department of Neurosciences, University of Helsinki, 00100 Helsinki, Finland
- Department of Biomedical and Neuromotor Sciences, University of Bologna, 40126 Bologna, Italy
| | - Alessandra Angelucci
- Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Moran Eye Institute, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84132, USA
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Danilova MV, Takahashi C, Mollon JD. How does the human visual system compare the speeds of spatially separated objects? PLoS One 2020; 15:e0231959. [PMID: 32352993 PMCID: PMC7192430 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0231959] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/02/2019] [Accepted: 04/04/2020] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
We measured psychophysical thresholds for discriminating the speeds of two arrays of moving dots. The arrays could be juxtaposed or could be spatially separated by up to 10 degrees of visual angle, eccentricity being held constant. We found that the precision of the judgments varied little with separation. Moreover, the function relating threshold to separation was similar whether the arrays moved in the same, in opposite or in orthogonal directions. And there was no significant difference in threshold whether the two stimuli were initially presented to the same cerebral hemisphere or to opposite ones. How are human observers able to compare stimuli that fall at well separated positions in the visual field? We consider two classes of explanation: (i) Observers' judgments might be based directly on the signals of dedicated 'comparator neurons', i.e. neurons drawing inputs of opposite sign from local regions of the visual field. (ii) Signals about local features might be transmitted to the site of comparison by a shared 'cerebral bus', where the same physical substrate carries different information from moment to moment. The minimal effects of proximity and direction (which might be expected to influence local detectors of relative motion), and the combinatorial explosion in the number of comparator neurons that would be required by (i), lead us to favor models of type (ii).
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Affiliation(s)
- M. V. Danilova
- Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England, United Kingdom
- I. P. Pavlov Institute of Physiology, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation, Giessen, Germany
- * E-mail:
| | - C. Takahashi
- Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England, United Kingdom
| | - J. D. Mollon
- Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England, United Kingdom
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Integration of Motion and Form Cues for the Perception of Self-Motion in the Human Brain. J Neurosci 2020; 40:1120-1132. [PMID: 31826945 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.3225-18.2019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/22/2018] [Revised: 11/27/2019] [Accepted: 12/02/2019] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
When moving around in the world, the human visual system uses both motion and form information to estimate the direction of self-motion (i.e., heading). However, little is known about cortical areas in charge of this task. This brain-imaging study addressed this question by using visual stimuli consisting of randomly distributed dot pairs oriented toward a locus on a screen (the form-defined focus of expansion [FoE]) but moved away from a different locus (the motion-defined FoE) to simulate observer translation. We first fixed the motion-defined FoE location and shifted the form-defined FoE location. We then made the locations of the motion- and the form-defined FoEs either congruent (at the same location in the display) or incongruent (on the opposite sides of the display). The motion- or the form-defined FoE shift was the same in the two types of stimuli, but the perceived heading direction shifted for the congruent, but not for the incongruent stimuli. Participants (both sexes) made a task-irrelevant (contrast discrimination) judgment during scanning. Searchlight and ROI-based multivoxel pattern analysis revealed that early visual areas V1, V2, and V3 responded to either the motion- or the form-defined FoE shift. After V3, only the dorsal areas V3a and V3B/KO responded to such shifts. Furthermore, area V3B/KO shows a significantly higher decoding accuracy for the congruent than the incongruent stimuli. Our results provide direct evidence showing that area V3B/KO does not simply respond to motion and form cues but integrates these two cues for the perception of heading.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Human survival relies on accurate perception of self-motion. The visual system uses both motion (optic flow) and form cues for the perception of the direction of self-motion (heading). Although human brain areas for processing optic flow and form structure are well identified, the areas responsible for integrating these two cues for the perception of self-motion remain unknown. We conducted fMRI experiments and used multivoxel pattern analysis technique to find human brain areas that can decode the shift in heading specified by each cue alone and the two cues combined. We found that motion and form cues are first processed in the early visual areas and then are likely integrated in the higher dorsal area V3B/KO for the final estimation of heading.
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12
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Spatial suppression promotes rapid figure-ground segmentation of moving objects. Nat Commun 2019; 10:2732. [PMID: 31266956 PMCID: PMC6606582 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-10653-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/11/2018] [Accepted: 05/21/2019] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Segregation of objects from their backgrounds is a fundamental visual function and one that is particularly effective when objects are in motion. Theoretically, suppressive center-surround mechanisms are well suited for accomplishing motion segregation. This longstanding hypothesis, however, has received limited empirical support. We report converging correlational and causal evidence that spatial suppression of background motion signals is critical for rapid segmentation of moving objects. Motion segregation ability is strongly predicted by both individual and stimulus-driven variations in spatial suppression strength. Moreover, aging-related superiority in perceiving background motion is associated with profound impairments in motion segregation. This segregation deficit is alleviated via perceptual learning, but only when motion segregation training also causes decreased sensitivity to background motion. We argue that perceptual insensitivity to large moving stimuli effectively implements background subtraction, which, in turn, enhances the visibility of moving objects and accounts for the observed link between spatial suppression and motion segregation. The visual system excels at segregating moving objects from their backgrounds, a key visual function hypothesized to be driven by suppressive centre-surround mechanisms. Here, the authors show that spatial suppression of background motion signals is critical for rapid segmentation of moving objects.
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13
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Roe AW. Columnar connectome: toward a mathematics of brain function. Netw Neurosci 2019; 3:779-791. [PMID: 31410379 PMCID: PMC6663318 DOI: 10.1162/netn_a_00088] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/26/2018] [Accepted: 04/14/2019] [Indexed: 01/09/2023] Open
Abstract
Understanding brain networks is important for many fields, including neuroscience, psychology, medicine, and artificial intelligence. To address this fundamental need, there are multiple ongoing connectome projects in the United States, Europe, and Asia producing brain connection maps with resolutions at macro- and microscales. However, still lacking is a mesoscale connectome. This viewpoint (1) explains the need for a mesoscale connectome in the primate brain (the columnar connectome), (2) presents a new method for acquiring such data rapidly on a large scale, and (3) proposes how one might use such data to achieve a mathematics of brain function.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna Wang Roe
- Institute of Interdisciplinary Neuroscience and Technology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
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