The fronto-parietal network connects more strongly to central than peripheral V1

ABSTRACTCentral and peripheral vision are important for distinct aspects of everyday life. We use central vision to read and peripheral vision to get the gist of a scene. To understand how these differences are reflected in connectivity between V1 and higher-order cognitive areas, we examined the differential connectivity of V1 that represent central and peripheral vision. We used diffusion-weighted-imaging and resting-state blood-oxygen-level-dependent data to examine structural and functional connectivity. The present results demonstrate strong evidence that centrally-representing portions of V1 are more strongly functionally and structurally connected to the fronto-parietal network than are peripherally representing portions of V1. This suggests that these patterns of connections between central V1 and the fronto-parietal network are direct and support attention-demanding visual tasks. Overall, our findings contribute to understanding how the human brain processes visual information and forms a baseline for any modifications in processing that might occur with training or experience.