scholarly journals Effects of Literacy in Early Visual and Occipitotemporal Areas of Chinese and French Readers

2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 459-475 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcin Szwed ◽  
Emilie Qiao ◽  
Antoinette Jobert ◽  
Stanislas Dehaene ◽  
Laurent Cohen
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Visual System ◽  
Reading Skills ◽  
Occipital Cortex ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Visual Word Form Area ◽  
Visual Areas ◽  
Fast Processing ◽  
Reading Chinese ◽  
French Words

How does reading expertise change the visual system? Here, we explored whether the visual system could develop dedicated perceptual mechanisms in early and intermediate visual cortex under the pressure for fast processing that is particularly strong in reading. We compared fMRI activations in Chinese participants with limited knowledge of French and in French participants with no knowledge of Chinese, exploiting these doubly dissociated reading skills as a tool to study the neural correlates of visual expertise. All participants viewed the same stimuli: words in both languages and matched visual controls, presented at a fast rate comparable with fluent reading. In the Visual Word Form Area, all participants showed enhanced responses to their known scripts. However, group differences were found in occipital cortex. In French readers reading French, activations were enhanced in left-hemisphere visual area V1, with the strongest differences between French words and their controls found at the central and horizontal meridian representations. Chinese participants, who were not expert French readers, did not show these early visual activations. In contrast, Chinese readers reading Chinese showed enhanced activations in intermediate visual areas V3v/hV4, absent in French participants. Together with our previous findings [Szwed, M., Dehaene, S., Kleinschmidt, A., Eger, E., Valabregue, R., Amadon, A., et al. Specialization for written words over objects in the visual cortex. Neuroimage, 56, 330–344, 2011], our results suggest that the effects of extensive practice can be found at the lowest levels of the visual system. They also reveal their cross-script variability: Alphabetic reading involves enhanced engagement of central and right meridian V1 representations that are particularly used in left-to-right reading, whereas Chinese characters put greater emphasis on intermediate visual areas.

scholarly journals Unique spatial integration in mouse primary visual cortex and higher visual areas

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin A. Murgas ◽  
Ashley M. Wilson ◽  
Valerie Michael ◽  
Lindsey L. Glickfeld
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Visual System ◽  
Primary Visual Cortex ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Spatial Integration ◽  
Global Features ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Visual Areas ◽  
Higher Visual Areas

AbstractNeurons in the visual system integrate over a wide range of spatial scales. This diversity is thought to enable both local and global computations. To understand how spatial information is encoded across the mouse visual system, we use two-photon imaging to measure receptive fields in primary visual cortex (V1) and three downstream higher visual areas (HVAs): LM (lateromedial), AL (anterolateral) and PM (posteromedial). We find significantly larger receptive field sizes and less surround suppression in PM than in V1 or the other HVAs. Unlike other visual features studied in this system, specialization of spatial integration in PM cannot be explained by specific projections from V1 to the HVAs. Instead, our data suggests that distinct connectivity within PM may support the area’s unique ability to encode global features of the visual scene, whereas V1, LM and AL may be more specialized for processing local features.

scholarly journals Widespread correlation patterns of fMRI signal across visual cortex reflect eccentricity organization

eLife ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J Arcaro ◽  
Christopher J Honey ◽  
Ryan EB Mruczek ◽  
Sabine Kastner ◽  
Uri Hasson
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Visual System ◽  
Visual Space ◽  
Fundamental Question ◽  
Bold Signal ◽  
Topographic Map ◽  
Correlation Pattern ◽  
Visual Areas ◽  
Field Organization ◽  
Receptive Field Organization

The human visual system can be divided into over two-dozen distinct areas, each of which contains a topographic map of the visual field. A fundamental question in vision neuroscience is how the visual system integrates information from the environment across different areas. Using neuroimaging, we investigated the spatial pattern of correlated BOLD signal across eight visual areas on data collected during rest conditions and during naturalistic movie viewing. The correlation pattern between areas reflected the underlying receptive field organization with higher correlations between cortical sites containing overlapping representations of visual space. In addition, the correlation pattern reflected the underlying widespread eccentricity organization of visual cortex, in which the highest correlations were observed for cortical sites with iso-eccentricity representations including regions with non-overlapping representations of visual space. This eccentricity-based correlation pattern appears to be part of an intrinsic functional architecture that supports the integration of information across functionally specialized visual areas.

scholarly journals Magnitude, time course, and specificity of rapid adaptation across mouse visual areas

2020 ◽  
Vol 124 (1) ◽  
pp. 245-258 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miaomiao Jin ◽  
Lindsey L. Glickfeld
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Visual System ◽  
Primary Visual Cortex ◽  
Sensory Processing ◽  
Time Course ◽  
Recent Experience ◽  
Rapid Adaptation ◽  
It Impacts ◽  
Visual Areas ◽  
Higher Visual Areas

Rapid adaptation dynamically alters sensory signals to account for recent experience. To understand how adaptation affects sensory processing and perception, we must determine how it impacts the diverse set of cortical and subcortical areas along the hierarchy of the mouse visual system. We find that rapid adaptation strongly impacts neurons in primary visual cortex, the higher visual areas, and the colliculus, consistent with its profound effects on behavior.

Single Units and Visual Cortical Organization

Perception ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 27 (8) ◽  
pp. 889-935 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Lennie
Keyword(s):  
Visual System ◽  
Striate Cortex ◽  
Occipital Cortex ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Hierarchical Organization ◽  
Cortical Organization ◽  
Visual Areas ◽  
The World ◽  
Visual Cortical ◽  
Extrastriate Areas

The visual system has a parallel and hierarchical organization, evident at every stage from the retina onwards. Although the general benefits of parallel and hierarchical organization in the visual system are easily understood, it has not been easy to discern the function of the visual cortical modules. I explore the view that striate cortex segregates information about different attributes of the image, and dispatches it for analysis to different extrastriate areas. I argue that visual cortex does not undertake multiple relatively independent analyses of the image from which it assembles a unified representation that can be interrogated about the what and where of the world. Instead, occipital cortex is organized so that perceptually relevant information can be recovered at every level in the hierarchy, that information used in making decisions at one level is not passed on to the next level, and, with one rather special exception (area MT), through all stages of analysis all dimensions of the image remain intimately coupled in a retinotopic map. I then offer some explicit suggestions about the analyses undertaken by visual areas in occipital cortex, and conclude by examining some objections to the proposals.

Combined Activation and Deactivation of Visual Cortex During Tactile Sensory Processing

2007 ◽  
Vol 97 (2) ◽  
pp. 1633-1641 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lotfi B. Merabet ◽  
Jascha D. Swisher ◽  
Stephanie A. McMains ◽  
Mark A. Halko ◽  
Amir Amedi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Sensory Processing ◽  
Occipital Cortex ◽  
Visual Modality ◽  
Visual Areas ◽  
Cortical Hierarchy ◽  
Cortical Regions ◽  
Visual Cortical ◽  
Higher Visual Areas ◽  
Significant Activation

The involvement of occipital cortex in sensory processing is not restricted solely to the visual modality. Tactile processing has been shown to modulate higher-order visual and multisensory integration areas in sighted as well as visually deprived subjects; however, the extent of involvement of early visual cortical areas remains unclear. To investigate this issue, we employed functional magnetic resonance imaging in normally sighted, briefly blindfolded subjects with well-defined visuotopic borders as they tactually explored and rated raised-dot patterns. Tactile task performance resulted in significant activation in primary visual cortex (V1) and deactivation of extrastriate cortical regions V2, V3, V3A, and hV4 with greater deactivation in dorsal subregions and higher visual areas. These results suggest that tactile processing affects occipital cortex via two distinct pathways: a suppressive top-down pathway descending through the visual cortical hierarchy and an excitatory pathway arising from outside the visual cortical hierarchy that drives area V1 directly.

scholarly journals Topographic organization of areas V3 and V4 and its relation to supra-areal organization of the primate visual system

2015 ◽  
Vol 32 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.J. ARCARO ◽  
S. KASTNER
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Visual System ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Visual Space ◽  
Anatomical Location ◽  
Visual Areas ◽  
Connectivity Patterns ◽  
Early Visual Cortex ◽  
Functional Areas

AbstractAreas V3 and V4 are commonly thought of as individual entities in the primate visual system, based on definition criteria such as their representation of visual space, connectivity, functional response properties, and relative anatomical location in cortex. Yet, large-scale functional and anatomical organization patterns not only emphasize distinctions within each area, but also links across visual cortex. Specifically, the visuotopic organization of V3 and V4 appears to be part of a larger, supra-areal organization, clustering these areas with early visual areas V1 and V2. In addition, connectivity patterns across visual cortex appear to vary within these areas as a function of their supra-areal eccentricity organization. This complicates the traditional view of these regions as individual functional “areas.” Here, we will review the criteria for defining areas V3 and V4 and will discuss functional and anatomical studies in humans and monkeys that emphasize the integration of individual visual areas into broad, supra-areal clusters that work in concert for a common computational goal. Specifically, we propose that the visuotopic organization of V3 and V4, which provides the criteria for differentiating these areas, also unifies these areas into the supra-areal organization of early visual cortex. We propose that V3 and V4 play a critical role in this supra-areal organization by filtering information about the visual environment along parallel pathways across higher-order cortex.

Visual cortical inputs to deep layers of cat's superior colliculus

1983 ◽  
Vol 50 (5) ◽  
pp. 1143-1155 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. M. Berson ◽  
J. T. McIlwain
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Superior Colliculus ◽  
Deep Layer ◽  
Optic Tract ◽  
Occipital Cortex ◽  
Optic Chiasm ◽  
Optic Disk ◽  
Functional Connections ◽  
Visual Areas ◽  
Deep Layers

In the superior colliculi of cats anesthetized with ketamine, 84% of identified output cells of the deep layers could be driven by shocks to the contralateral optic disk, optic chiasm, or ipsilateral optic tract; 75% of these deep-layer cells had response latencies reflecting a polysynaptic influence of retinal Y-cells. Following large, acute lesions of the ipsilateral occipital cortex (including visual areas 17, 18, 19, and the posteromedial lateral suprasylvian area (PMLS), only 18% of deep-layer output cells were driven by electrical stimulation of the optic pathway and only 4% exhibited an indirect Y-cell influence. Thus, one or more of these visual areas may be important for the relay of retinal information, and particularly of Y-cell information, to the deep layers of the superior colliculus. This hypothesis is supported by the observation that intracortical stimulation in areas 17, 18, 19, and PMLS activated many cells of the ipsilateral, deep tectal layers at latencies consistent with those exhibited by the indirect Y-cell pathway. The distributions of activation latencies were similar to those observed in the superficial layers, raising the possibility that at least some of the cortical influence on the deep layers may be mediated by direct connections. Cells of the deep layers were more likely to be excited by a cortical stimulus that activated cells immediately above them in the superficial layers than by a stimulus that did not. This indicates that the functional connections between visual cortex and the deep collicular layers exhibit a topographic orderliness similar to that previously described for corticotectal projections to the superficial layers. These results provide further evidence that the visual cortex exerts a significant influence on cells of the deep collicular strata and that the pathways involved are capable of mediating the indirect, retinal Y-cell input to these neurons.

scholarly journals Intrinsic cortical dynamics dominate population responses to natural images across human visual cortex

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Henriksson ◽  
Seyed-Mahdi Khaligh-Razavi ◽  
Kendrick Kay ◽  
Nikolaus Kriegeskorte
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Occipital Cortex ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Gabor Wavelet ◽  
Natural Image ◽  
Response Patterns ◽  
Cortical Dynamics ◽  
Visual Areas ◽  
Pyramid Model ◽  
Lateral Occipital Cortex

Intrinsic cortical dynamics are thought to underlie trial-to-trial variability of visually evoked responses in animal models. Understanding their function in the context of sensory processing and representation is a major current challenge. Here we report that intrinsic cortical dynamics strongly affect the representational geometry of a brain region, as reflected in response-pattern dissimilarities, and exaggerate the similarity of representations between brain regions. We characterized the representations in several human visual areas by representational dissimilarity matrices (RDMs) constructed from fMRI response-patterns for natural image stimuli. The RDMs of different visual areas were highly similar when the response-patterns were estimated on the basis of the same trials (sharing intrinsic cortical dynamics), and quite distinct when patterns were estimated on the basis of separate trials (sharing only the stimulus-driven component). We show that the greater similarity of the representational geometries can be explained by the coherent fluctuations of regional-mean activation within visual cortex, reflecting intrinsic dynamics. Using separate trials to study stimulus-driven representations revealed clearer distinctions between the representational geometries: a Gabor wavelet pyramid model explained representational geometry in visual areas V1–3 and a categorical animate–inanimate model in the object-responsive lateral occipital cortex.

scholarly journals Compressive Temporal Summation in Human Visual Cortex

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jingyang Zhou ◽  
Noah C. Benson ◽  
Kendrick Kay ◽  
Jonathan Winawer
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Visual System ◽  
Temporal Summation ◽  
Neural Response ◽  
Visual World ◽  
Sensory Inputs ◽  
Space And Time ◽  
Visual Areas ◽  
Invariant Representations ◽  
Over Time

AbstractCombining sensory inputs over space and time is fundamental to vision. Population receptive field models have been successful in characterizing spatial encoding throughout the human visual pathways. A parallel question—how visual areas in the human brain process information distributed over time—has received less attention. One challenge is that the most widely used neuroimaging method—fMRI—has coarse temporal resolution compared to the time-scale of neural dynamics. Here, via carefully controlled temporally modulated stimuli, we show that information about temporal processing can be readily derived from fMRI signal amplitudes in male and female subjects. We find that all visual areas exhibit sub-additive summation, whereby responses to longer stimuli are less than the linear prediction from briefer stimuli. We also find fMRI evidence that the neural response to two stimuli is reduced for brief interstimulus intervals (indicating adaptation). These effects are more pronounced in visual areas anterior to V1-V3. Finally, we develop a general model that shows how these effects can be captured with two simple operations: temporal summation followed by a compressive nonlinearity. This model operates for arbitrary temporal stimulation patterns and provides a simple and interpretable set of computations that can be used to characterize neural response properties across the visual hierarchy. Importantly, compressive temporal summation directly parallels earlier findings of compressive spatial summation in visual cortex describing responses to stimuli distributed across space. This indicates that for space and time, cortex uses a similar processing strategy to achieve higher-level and increasingly invariant representations of the visual world.Significance statementCombining sensory inputs over time is fundamental to seeing. Two important temporal phenomena are summation, the accumulation of sensory inputs over time, and adaptation, a response reduction for repeated or sustained stimuli. We investigated these phenomena in the human visual system using fMRI. We built predictive models that operate on arbitrary temporal patterns of stimulation using two simple computations: temporal summation followed by a compressive nonlinearity. Our new temporal compressive summation model captures (1) subadditive temporal summation, and (2) adaptation. We show that the model accounts for systematic differences in these phenomena across visual areas. Finally, we show that for space and time, the visual system uses a similar strategy to achieve increasingly invariant representations of the visual world.

scholarly journals Functions of ventral visual cortex after bilateral hippocampal loss

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiye G. Kim ◽  
Emma Gregory ◽  
Barbara Landau ◽  
Michael McCloskey ◽  
Nicholas B. Turk-Browne ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Visual System ◽  
Temporal Lobe ◽  
Medial Temporal Lobe ◽  
Adaptation Effect ◽  
Amnesic Patient ◽  
Time Lags ◽  
Rapid Learning ◽  
Visual Areas ◽  
Adaptation Phenomenon

AbstractRepeated stimuli elicit attenuated responses in visual cortex relative to novel stimuli. This adaptation phenomenon can be considered a form of rapid learning and a signature of perceptual memory. Adaptation occurs not only when a stimulus is repeated immediately, but also when there is a lag in terms of time and other intervening stimuli before the repetition. But how does the visual system keep track of which stimuli are repeated, especially after long delays and many intervening stimuli? We hypothesized that the hippocampus supports long-lag adaptation, given that it learns from single experiences, maintains information over delays, and sends feedback to visual cortex. We tested this hypothesis with fMRI in an amnesic patient, LSJ, who has encephalitic damage to the medial temporal lobe resulting in complete bilateral hippocampal loss. We measured adaptation at varying time lags between repetitions in functionally localized visual areas that were intact in LSJ. We observed that these areas track information over a few minutes even when the hippocampus is unavailable. Indeed, LSJ and controls were identical when attention was directed away from the repeating stimuli: adaptation occurred for lags up to three minutes, but not six minutes. However, when attention was directed toward stimuli, controls now showed an adaptation effect at six minutes but LSJ did not. These findings suggest that visual cortex can support one-shot perceptual memories lasting for several minutes but that the hippocampus is necessary for adaptation in visual cortex after longer delays when stimuli are task-relevant.

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