Surface Orientation Discrimination Activates Caudal and Anterior Intraparietal Sulcus in Humans: An Event-Related fMRI Study

Perception of surface orientation is an essential step for the reconstruction of the three-dimensional (3D) structure of an object. Human lesion and functional neuroimaging studies have demonstrated the importance of the parietal lobe in this task. In primate single-unit studies, neurons in the caudal part of the intraparietal sulcus (CIP) were found to be active during the extraction of surface orientation through monocular (two-dimensional) cues such as texture gradients and linear perspective as well as binocular (3D) cues such as disparity gradient and orientation disparity. We used event-related fMRI to study the functional neuroanatomy of surface orientation discrimination using stimuli with monocular depth cues in six volunteers. Both posterior (CIP) and anterior (AIP) areas within the intraparietal sulcus showed a stronger activation during surface orientation as compared with a control (color discrimination) task using identical stimuli. Furthermore, the signal changes in CIP showed a greater performance effect than those in AIP, suggesting that CIP is tightly linked to the discrimination task.

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The activation of intraparietal sulcus during surface orientation discrimination task in humans: an event-related fMRI study

NeuroImage ◽

10.1016/s1053-8119(01)92280-3 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 13 (6) ◽

pp. 938

Author(s):

Elisa Shikata ◽

Fasin Hamzei ◽

C Weiller ◽

Christian Büchel

Keyword(s):

Discrimination Task ◽

Surface Orientation ◽

Orientation Discrimination ◽

Intraparietal Sulcus ◽

Fmri Study

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Choice-Related Activity during Visual Slant Discrimination in Macaque CIP but Not V3A

10.1101/457531 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

L. Caitlin Elmore ◽

Ari Rosenberg ◽

Gregory C. DeAngelis ◽

Dora E. Angelaki

Keyword(s):

Visual Processing ◽

Discrimination Task ◽

Three Dimensional ◽

Surface Orientation ◽

Orientation Discrimination ◽

Visual Orientation ◽

Planar Surface ◽

Related Activity ◽

Planar Surfaces ◽

3D Surface

AbstractCreating three-dimensional (3D) representations of the world from two-dimensional retinal images is fundamental to many visual guided behaviors including reaching and grasping. A critical component of this process is determining the 3D orientation of objects. Previous studies have shown that neurons in the caudal intraparietal area (CIP) of the macaque monkey represent 3D planar surface orientation (i.e., slant and tilt). Here we compare the responses of neurons in areas V3A (which is implicated in 3D visual processing and which precedes CIP in the visual hierarchy) and CIP to 3D oriented planar surfaces. We then examine whether activity in these areas correlates with perception during a fine slant discrimination task in which monkeys report if the top of a surface is slanted towards or away from them. Although we find that V3A and CIP neurons show similar sensitivity to planar surface orientation, significant choice-related activity during the slant discrimination task is rare in V3A but prominent in CIP. These results implicate both V3A and CIP in the representation of 3D surface orientation, and suggest a functional dissociation between the areas based on slant-related decision signals.Significance StatementSurface orientation perception is fundamental to visually guided behaviors such as reaching, grasping, and navigation. Previous studies implicate the caudal intraparietal area (CIP) in the representation of 3D surface orientation. Here we show that responses to 3D oriented planar surfaces are similar in CIP and V3A, which precedes CIP in the cortical hierarchy. However, we also find a qualitative distinction between the two areas: only CIP neurons show robust choice-related activity during a fine visual orientation discrimination task.

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Age-related Changes in the Activation of the Intraparietal Sulcus during Nonsymbolic Magnitude Processing: An Event-related Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn.2006.18.11.1820 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 18 (11) ◽

pp. 1820-1828 ◽

Cited By ~ 178

Author(s):

Daniel Ansari ◽

Bibek Dhital

Keyword(s):

Numerical Cognition ◽

Functional Neuroimaging ◽

Imaging Study ◽

Functional Brain Imaging ◽

Numerical Magnitude ◽

Intraparietal Sulcus ◽

Functional Neuroanatomy ◽

Magnitude Processing ◽

Age Related ◽

Age Related Changes

Numerical magnitude processing is an essential everyday skill. Functional brain imaging studies with human adults have repeatedly revealed that bilateral regions of the intraparietal sulcus are correlated with various numerical and mathematical skills. Surprisingly little, however, is known about the development of these brain representations. In the present study, we used functional neuroimaging to compare the neural correlates of nonsymbolic magnitude judgments between children and adults. Although behavioral performance was similar across groups, in comparison to the group of children the adult participants exhibited greater effects of numerical distance on the left intraparietal sulcus. Our findings are the first to reveal that even the most basic aspects of numerical cognition are subject to age-related changes in functional neuroanatomy. We propose that developmental impairments of number may be associated with atypical specialization of cortical regions underlying magnitude processing.

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Neural Encoding Correlates of High and Low Verbal Memory Performance

Journal of Psychophysiology ◽

10.1027/0269-8803.20.2.68 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 20 (2) ◽

pp. 68-78 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Sibylle Heinze ◽

Gudrun Sartory ◽

Bernhard W. Müller ◽

Armin de Greiff ◽

Michael Forsting ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Verbal Memory ◽

Parietal Lobe ◽

Functional Neuroimaging ◽

Memory Performance ◽

Extrastriate Cortex ◽

Parahippocampal Gyrus ◽

Premotor Area ◽

High Performers ◽

Rehearsal Strategy ◽

Common Memory

Neuroimaging studies have indicated involvement of left prefrontal cortex and temporal areas in verbal memory processes. The current study used event-related functional neuroimaging to compare encoding of subsequently recalled and not recalled words in high and low memory performers. Fifteen healthy volunteers were given lists of words to learn with immediate recall and to read as a control condition. High performers reported to have visualized the words whereas low performers used a rehearsal strategy. Compared to reading, unsuccessful encoding was associated with thalamic and left premotor area (BA 6) activity. Comparing successful with unsuccessful learning yielded widespread activity of the left prefrontal and posterior temporal gyrus as well as the left superior parietal lobe in the whole group. Low performers showed activation of the left premotor area throughout learning and additionally of the left middle temporal and parahippocampal gyrus during successful encoding. High performers showed increased activation in the extrastriate cortex throughout learning and additionally in the left parietal post- and paracentral areas as well as in the right precuneus during successful encoding. The results suggest that high verbal memory performance is the result of spatiovisual activation concomitant to imagery and low performance of hippocampal and motor activation, the latter being associated with rehearsal, with a common memory circuit subserving both groups.

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Neural effects of cognitive–behavioural therapy on dysfunctional attitudes in depression

Psychological Medicine ◽

10.1017/s0033291714002529 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 45 (7) ◽

pp. 1425-1433 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

A. Sankar ◽

J. Scott ◽

A. Paszkiewicz ◽

V. P. Giampietro ◽

H. Steiner ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy ◽

Depressive Episode ◽

Parietal Lobe ◽

Unipolar Depression ◽

Behavioural Therapy ◽

Dysfunctional Attitudes ◽

Healthy Controls ◽

Functional Neuroanatomy ◽

Attentional Processing ◽

Cognitive Behavioural

BackgroundDysfunctional attitudes are a feature of depression that has been correlated with receptor binding abnormalities in limbic and cortical regions. We sought to investigate the functional neuroanatomy of dysfunctional attitudes in major depressive disorder (MDD) and the effects of treatment with cognitive–behavioural therapy (CBT).MethodParticipants were 16 patients with unipolar depression in an acute depressive episode (mean age 40.0 years) and 16 matched healthy controls (mean age 39.9 years). Patients were medication free and received a course of treatment with CBT. All participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans at baseline and at week 16, prior to the initiation of therapy and following the course of CBT for patients. During each fMRI scan, participants indicated their attributions to statements from a modified Dysfunctional Attitudes Scale (mDAS-48).ResultsMDD patients in an acute depressive episode endorsed a greater number of extreme responses to DAS statements, which normalized following CBT treatment. Extreme attributions were associated with greater activation in the left hippocampal region, inferior parietal lobe and precuneus in MDD patients as compared with healthy controls as a main effect of group. An interaction effect was found in the left parahippocampal region, which showed less attenuation in MDD patients at the follow-up scan relative to healthy controls.ConclusionsAttenuation of activity in the parahippocampal region may be indicative of an improvement in dysfunctional thinking following CBT treatment in depression, while persistent engagement of regions involved in attentional processing and memory retrieval with extreme attributions reflects a trait feature of depression.

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Investigating the Effects of tDCS on Visual Orientation Discrimination Task Performance: “the Possible Influence of Placebo”

Journal of Cognitive Enhancement ◽

10.1007/s41465-019-00154-3 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 4 (3) ◽

pp. 235-249

Author(s):

A. Bin Dawood ◽

A. Dickinson ◽

A. Aytemur ◽

C. Howarth ◽

E. Milne ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Placebo Effect ◽

Discrimination Task ◽

Low Cost ◽

Cortical Inhibition ◽

Orientation Discrimination ◽

Visual Orientation ◽

Non Invasive ◽

Clear Link ◽

Cortical Modulation ◽

Improved Performance

Abstract The non-invasive neuromodulation technique tDCS offers the promise of a low-cost tool for both research and clinical applications in psychology, psychiatry, and neuroscience. However, findings regarding its efficacy are often equivocal. A key issue is that the clinical and cognitive applications studied are often complex and thus effects of tDCS are difficult to predict given its known effects on the basic underlying neurophysiology, namely alterations in cortical inhibition-excitation balance. As such, it may be beneficial to assess the effects of tDCS in tasks whose performance has a clear link to cortical inhibition-excitation balance such as the visual orientation discrimination task (ODT). In prior studies in our laboratory, no practice effects were found during 2 consecutive runs of the ODT, thus in the current investigation, to examine the effects of tDCS, subjects received 10 min of 2 mA occipital tDCS (sham, anode, cathode) between a first and second run of ODT. Surprisingly, subjects’ performance significantly improved in the second run of ODT compared to the first one regardless of the tDCS stimulation type they received (anodal, cathodal, or sham-tDCS). Possible causes for such an improvement could have been due to either a generic “placebo” effect of tDCS (as all subjects received some form of tDCS) or an increased delay period between the two runs of ODT of the current study compared to our previous work (10-min duration required to administer tDCS as opposed to ~ 2 min in previous studies as a “break”). As such, we tested these two possibilities with a subsequent experiment in which subjects received 2-min or 10-min delay between the 2 runs (with no tDCS) or 10 min of sham-tDCS. Only sham-tDCS resulted in improved performance thus these data add to a growing literature suggesting that tDCS has powerful placebo effect that may occur even in the absence of active cortical modulation.

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Identifying Rate-Limiting Nodes in Large-Scale Cortical Networks for Visuospatial Processing: An Illustration using fMRI

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/08989290152001943 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 13 (4) ◽

pp. 537-545 ◽

Cited By ~ 57

Author(s):

V. W. K. Ng ◽

E. T. Bullmore ◽

G. I. de Zubicaray ◽

A. Cooper ◽

J. Suckling ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mental Rotation ◽

Functional Neuroimaging ◽

Permutation Test ◽

Line Orientation ◽

Extrastriate Cortex ◽

Behavioral Performance ◽

Functional Neuroanatomy ◽

Visuospatial Processing ◽

Baseline Conditions ◽

Rate Limiting

With the advent of functional neuroimaging techniques, in particular functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we have gained greater insight into the neural correlates of visuospatial function. However, it may not always be easy to identify the cerebral regions most specifically associated with performance on a given task. One approach is to examine the quantitative relationships between regional activation and behavioral performance measures. In the present study, we investigated the functional neuroanatomy of two different visuospatial processing tasks, judgement of line orientation and mental rotation Twenty-four normal participants were scanned with fMRI using blocked periodic designs for experimental task presentation. Accuracy and reaction time (RT) to each trial of both activation and baseline conditions in each experiment was recorded. Both experiments activated dorsal and ventral visual cortical areas as well as dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. More regionally specific associations with task performance were identified by estimating the association between (sinusoidal) power of functional response and mean RT to the activation condition; a permutation test based on spatial statistics was used for inference. There was significant behavioral-physiological association in right ventral extrastriate cortex for the line orientation task and in bilateral (predominantly right) superior parietal lobule for the mental rotation task. Comparable associations were not found between power of response and RT to the baseline conditions of the tasks. These data suggest that one region in a neurocognitive network may be most strongly associated with behavioral performance and this may be regarded as the computationally least efficient or rate-limiting node of the network.

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Responses of monkey inferior temporal neurons to luminance-, motion-, and texture-defined gratings

Journal of Neurophysiology ◽

10.1152/jn.1995.73.4.1341 ◽

1995 ◽

Vol 73 (4) ◽

pp. 1341-1354 ◽

Cited By ~ 54

Author(s):

G. Sary ◽

R. Vogels ◽

G. Kovacs ◽

G. A. Orban

Keyword(s):

Visual Perception ◽

Relative Motion ◽

Discrimination Task ◽

Stimulus Presentation ◽

Response Strength ◽

The Other ◽

Orientation Discrimination ◽

Macaque Monkeys ◽

Tuning Width ◽

Visual Cortical

1. We recorded from neurons responsive to gratings in the inferior temporal (IT) cortices of macaque monkeys. One of the monkeys performed an orientation discrimination task; the other maintained fixation during stimulus presentation. Stimuli consisted of gratings based on discontinuities in luminance, relative motion, and texture. 2. IT cells responded well to gratings defined solely by relative motion, implying either direct or indirect motion input into IT, an area that is part of the ventral visual cortical pathway. 3. Response strength in general did not depend on the cue used to define the gratings. Latency values observed for the two static grating types (luminance- and texture-defined gratings) were similar, but significantly shorter than those measured for the kinetic gratings. 4. Stimulus orientation had a significant effect in 27%, 27%, and 9% of the cells tested with luminance-, kinetic-, and texture-defined gratings, respectively. 5. Only a small proportion of cells were orientation sensitive for more than one defining cue. The average preferred orientation for luminance and kinetic gratings matched; the tuning width was similar for the two cues. 6. Our results indicate that IT cells may contribute to cue-invariant coding of boundaries and edges. We discuss the relevance of these results to visual perception.

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