Cortical Integration of Contextual Information across Objects

Recognizing objects in the environment and understanding our surroundings often depends on context: the presence of other objects and knowledge about their relations with each other. Such contextual information activates a set of medial lobe brain regions, the parahippocampal cortex and the retrosplenial complex. Both regions are more activated by single objects with a unique contextual association than by objects not associated with any specific context. Similarly they are more activated by spatially coherent arrangements of objects when those are consistent with their known spatial relations. The current study tested how context in multiple-object displays is represented in these regions in the absence of relevant spatial information. Using an fMRI slow-event-related design, we show that the precuneus (a subpart of the retrosplenial complex) is more activated by simultaneously presented contextually related objects than by unrelated objects. This suggests that the representation of context in this region is cumulative, representing integrated information across objects in the display. We discuss these findings in relation to processing of visual information and relate them to previous findings of contextual effects in perception.

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Object-in-place Memory Predicted by Anterolateral Entorhinal Cortex and Parahippocampal Cortex Volume in Older Adults

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn_a_01385 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 31 (5) ◽

pp. 711-729 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Lok-Kin Yeung ◽

Rosanna K. Olsen ◽

Bryan Hong ◽

Valentina Mihajlovic ◽

Maria C. D'Angelo ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Alzheimer Disease ◽

Entorhinal Cortex ◽

Spatial Information ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Spatial Relationships ◽

Object Representations ◽

Functional Connections ◽

Place Memory ◽

Parahippocampal Cortex

The lateral portion of the entorhinal cortex is one of the first brain regions affected by tau pathology, an important biomarker for Alzheimer disease. Improving our understanding of this region's cognitive role may help identify better cognitive tests for early detection of Alzheimer disease. Based on its functional connections, we tested the idea that the human anterolateral entorhinal cortex (alERC) may play a role in integrating spatial information into object representations. We recently demonstrated that the volume of the alERC was related to processing the spatial relationships of the features within an object [Yeung, L. K., Olsen, R. K., Bild-Enkin, H. E. P., D'Angelo, M. C., Kacollja, A., McQuiggan, D. A., et al. Anterolateral entorhinal cortex volume predicted by altered intra-item configural processing. Journal of Neuroscience, 37, 5527–5538, 2017]. In this study, we investigated whether the human alERC might also play a role in processing the spatial relationships between an object and its environment using an eye-tracking task that assessed visual fixations to a critical object within a scene. Guided by rodent work, we measured both object-in-place memory, the association of an object with a given context [Wilson, D. I., Langston, R. F., Schlesiger, M. I., Wagner, M., Watanabe, S., & Ainge, J. A. Lateral entorhinal cortex is critical for novel object-context recognition. Hippocampus, 23, 352–366, 2013], and object-trace memory, the memory for the former location of objects [Tsao, A., Moser, M. B., & Moser, E. I. Traces of experience in the lateral entorhinal cortex. Current Biology, 23, 399–405, 2013]. In a group of older adults with varying stages of brain atrophy and cognitive decline, we found that the volume of the alERC and the volume of the parahippocampal cortex selectively predicted object-in-place memory, but not object-trace memory. These results provide support for the notion that the alERC may integrate spatial information into object representations.

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Object-in-Place Memory Predicted by Anterolateral Entorhinal Cortex and Parahippocampal Cortex Volume in Older Adults

10.1101/409607 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Lok-Kin Yeung ◽

Rosanna K. Olsen ◽

Bryan Hong ◽

Valentina Mihajlovic ◽

Maria C. D’Angelo ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Entorhinal Cortex ◽

Spatial Information ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Spatial Relationships ◽

Object Representations ◽

Functional Connections ◽

Place Memory ◽

Parahippocampal Cortex ◽

Critical Object

AbstractThe lateral portion of the entorhinal cortex is one of the first brain regions affected by tau pathology, an important biomarker for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Improving our understanding of this region’s cognitive role may help identify better cognitive tests for early detection of AD. Based on its functional connections, we tested the idea that the human anterolateral entorhinal cortex (alERC) may play a role in integrating spatial information into object representations. We recently demonstrated that the volume of the alERC was related to processing the spatial relationships of the features within an object (Yeung et al., 2017). In the present study, we investigated whether the human alERC might also play a role in processing the spatial relationships between an object and its environment using an eyetracking task that assessed visual fixations to a critical object within a scene. Guided by rodent work, we measured both object-in-place memory, the association of an object with a given context (Wilson et al., 2013), and object-trace memory, the memory for the former location of objects (Tsao, Moser, & Moser, 2013). In a group of older adults with varying stages of brain atrophy and cognitive decline, we found that the volume of the alERC and the volume of the parahippocampal cortex (PHC) selectively predicted object-in-place memory, but not object-trace memory. These results provide support for the notion that the alERC may integrate spatial information into object representations.

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Processing of Visual Information by Normal and Brain-Operated Monkeys

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e473742008-169 ◽

1968 ◽

Author(s):

Martha Wilson ◽

Herbert M. Kaufman

Keyword(s):

Visual Information ◽

Processing Of Visual Information

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Processing of Visual Information in Mantis Shrimps

10.21236/ada473131 ◽

2007 ◽

Author(s):

Justin Marshall ◽

Sonja Kleinlogel

Keyword(s):

Visual Information ◽

Processing Of Visual Information

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Conscious perception and perceptual echoes: a binocular rivalry study

Neuroscience of Consciousness ◽

10.1093/nc/niab007 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2021 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Canhuang Luo ◽

Rufin VanRullen ◽

Andrea Alamia

Keyword(s):

Binocular Rivalry ◽

Visual Information ◽

Visual Stimulation ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Travelling Wave ◽

Alpha Power ◽

Conscious Perception ◽

Impulse Response Functions ◽

Band Frequency ◽

Underlying Mechanisms

Abstract Alpha rhythms (∼10Hz) in the human brain are classically associated with idling activities, being predominantly observed during quiet restfulness with closed eyes. However, recent studies demonstrated that alpha (∼10Hz) rhythms can directly relate to visual stimulation, resulting in oscillations, which can last for as long as one second. This alpha reverberation, dubbed perceptual echoes (PE), suggests that the visual system actively samples and processes visual information within the alpha-band frequency. Although PE have been linked to various visual functions, their underlying mechanisms and functional role are not completely understood. In this study, we investigated the relationship between conscious perception and the generation and the amplitude of PE. Specifically, we displayed two coloured Gabor patches with different orientations on opposite sides of the screen, and using a set of dichoptic mirrors, we induced a binocular rivalry between the two stimuli. We asked participants to continuously report which one of two Gabor patches they consciously perceived, while recording their EEG signals. Importantly, the luminance of each patch fluctuated randomly over time, generating random sequences from which we estimated two impulse-response functions (IRFs) reflecting the PE generated by the perceived (dominant) and non-perceived (suppressed) stimulus, respectively. We found that the alpha power of the PE generated by the consciously perceived stimulus was comparable with that of the PE generated during monocular vision (control condition) and higher than the PE induced by the suppressed stimulus. Moreover, confirming previous findings, we found that all PEs propagated as a travelling wave from posterior to frontal brain regions, irrespective of conscious perception. All in all our results demonstrate a correlation between conscious perception and PE, suggesting that the synchronization of neural activity plays an important role in visual sampling and conscious perception.

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A Robust Lane Detection Model Using Vertical Spatial Features and Contextual Driving Information

Sensors ◽

10.3390/s21030708 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (3) ◽

pp. 708

Author(s):

Wenbo Liu ◽

Fei Yan ◽

Jiyong Zhang ◽

Tao Deng

Keyword(s):

Information Exchange ◽

Information Transfer ◽

Spatial Information ◽

Contextual Information ◽

Great Influence ◽

Light Condition ◽

Lane Detection ◽

Detection Model ◽

Spatial Features ◽

Proposed Model

The quality of detected lane lines has a great influence on the driving decisions of unmanned vehicles. However, during the process of unmanned vehicle driving, the changes in the driving scene cause much trouble for lane detection algorithms. The unclear and occluded lane lines cannot be clearly detected by most existing lane detection models in many complex driving scenes, such as crowded scene, poor light condition, etc. In view of this, we propose a robust lane detection model using vertical spatial features and contextual driving information in complex driving scenes. The more effective use of contextual information and vertical spatial features enables the proposed model more robust detect unclear and occluded lane lines by two designed blocks: feature merging block and information exchange block. The feature merging block can provide increased contextual information to pass to the subsequent network, which enables the network to learn more feature details to help detect unclear lane lines. The information exchange block is a novel block that combines the advantages of spatial convolution and dilated convolution to enhance the process of information transfer between pixels. The addition of spatial information allows the network to better detect occluded lane lines. Experimental results show that our proposed model can detect lane lines more robustly and precisely than state-of-the-art models in a variety of complex driving scenarios.

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Cognitive map formation through haptic and visual exploration of tactile city-like maps

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-021-94778-1 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Loes Ottink ◽

Marit Hoogendonk ◽

Christian F. Doeller ◽

Thea M. Van der Geest ◽

Richard J. A. Van Wezel

Keyword(s):

Visual Information ◽

Spatial Information ◽

Cognitive Map ◽

Visual Exploration ◽

Distinct Advantage ◽

Small Scale ◽

Map Learning ◽

Scale Models ◽

Spatial Tasks ◽

Tactile Maps

AbstractIn this study, we compared cognitive map formation of small-scale models of city-like environments presented in visual or tactile/haptic modalities. Previous research often addresses only a limited amount of cognitive map aspects. We wanted to combine several of these aspects to elucidate a more complete view. Therefore, we assessed different types of spatial information, and consider egocentric as well as allocentric perspectives. Furthermore, we compared haptic map learning with visual map learning. In total 18 sighted participants (9 in a haptic condition, 9 visuo-haptic) learned three tactile maps of city-like environments. The maps differed in complexity, and had five marked locations associated with unique items. Participants estimated distances between item pairs, rebuilt the map, recalled locations, and navigated two routes, after learning each map. All participants overall performed well on the spatial tasks. Interestingly, only on the complex maps, participants performed worse in the haptic condition than the visuo-haptic, suggesting no distinct advantage of vision on the simple map. These results support ideas of modality-independent representations of space. Although it is less clear on the more complex maps, our findings indicate that participants using only haptic or a combination of haptic and visual information both form a quite accurate cognitive map of a simple tactile city-like map.

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A Connectome-Wide Functional Signature of Trait Anger

Clinical Psychological Science ◽

10.1177/21677026211030240 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 216770262110302

Author(s):

M. Justin Kim ◽

Maxwell L. Elliott ◽

Annchen R. Knodt ◽

Ahmad R. Hariri

Keyword(s):

Functional Connectivity ◽

Visual Information ◽

Past Research ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Small Sample ◽

Trait Anger ◽

Frontal Pole ◽

Brain Correlates ◽

Small Sample Sizes ◽

The Right

Past research on the brain correlates of trait anger has been limited by small sample sizes, a focus on relatively few regions of interest, and poor test–retest reliability of functional brain measures. To address these limitations, we conducted a data-driven analysis of variability in connectome-wide functional connectivity in a sample of 1,048 young adult volunteers. Multidimensional matrix regression analysis showed that self-reported trait anger maps onto variability in the whole-brain functional connectivity patterns of three brain regions that serve action-related functions: bilateral supplementary motor areas and the right lateral frontal pole. We then demonstrate that trait anger modulates the functional connectivity of these regions with canonical brain networks supporting somatomotor, affective, self-referential, and visual information processes. Our findings offer novel neuroimaging evidence for interpreting trait anger as a greater propensity to provoked action, which supports ongoing efforts to understand its utility as a potential transdiagnostic marker for disordered states characterized by aggressive behavior.

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