scholarly journals Addendum: Shaping the Cortical Landscape: Functions and Mechanisms of Top-Down Cortical Feedback Pathways

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward Zagha
2000 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 332-333 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Grossberg

The brain contains ubiquitous reciprocal bottom-up and top-down intercortical and thalamocortical pathways. These resonating feedback pathways may be essential for stable learning of speech and language codes and for context-sensitive selection and completion of noisy speech sounds and word groupings. Context-sensitive speech data, notably interword backward effects in time, have been quantitatively modeled using these concepts but not with purely feedforward models.


Author(s):  
Frederick Federer ◽  
Seminare Ta’afua ◽  
Sam Merlin ◽  
Mahlega S. Hassanpour ◽  
Alessandra Angelucci

ABSTRACTThe sensory neocortex consists of hierarchically-organized areas reciprocally connected via feedforward and feedback circuits. Feedforward connections shape the receptive field properties of neurons in higher areas within parallel streams specialized in processing specific stimulus attributes. Feedback connections, instead, have been implicated in top-down modulations, such as attention, prediction and sensory context. However, their computational role remains unknown, partly because we lack knowledge about rules of feedback connectivity to constrain models of feedback function. For example, it is unknown whether feedback connections maintain stream-specific segregation, or integrate information across parallel streams. Using selective viral-mediated labeling of feedback connections arising from specific cytochrome-oxidase stripes of macaque visual area V2, we find that feedback to the primary visual cortex (V1) is organized into parallel streams resembling the reciprocal feedforward pathways. These results suggest that functionally-specialized V2 feedback channels modulate V1 responses to specific stimulus attributes, an organizational principle that could extend to feedback pathways in other sensory systems.


2006 ◽  
Vol 103 (33) ◽  
pp. 12586-12591 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. E. Roland ◽  
A. Hanazawa ◽  
C. Undeman ◽  
D. Eriksson ◽  
T. Tompa ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clement Abbatecola ◽  
Peggy Gerardin ◽  
Kim Beneyton ◽  
Henry Kennedy ◽  
Kenneth Knoblauch

Cross-modal effects provide a model framework for investigating hierarchical inter-areal processing, particularly, under conditions where unimodal cortical areas receive contextual feedback from other modalities. Here, using complementary behavioral and brain imaging techniques, we investigated the functional networks participating in face and voice processing during gender perception, a high-level feature of voice and face perception. Within the framework of a signal detection decision model, Maximum likelihood conjoint measurement (MLCM) was used to estimate the contributions of the face and voice to gender comparisons between pairs of audio-visual stimuli in which the face and voice were independently modulated. Top–down contributions were varied by instructing participants to make judgments based on the gender of either the face, the voice or both modalities (N = 12 for each task). Estimated face and voice contributions to the judgments of the stimulus pairs were not independent; both contributed to all tasks, but their respective weights varied over a 40-fold range due to top–down influences. Models that best described the modal contributions required the inclusion of two different top–down interactions: (i) an interaction that depended on gender congruence across modalities (i.e., difference between face and voice modalities for each stimulus); (ii) an interaction that depended on the within modalities’ gender magnitude. The significance of these interactions was task dependent. Specifically, gender congruence interaction was significant for the face and voice tasks while the gender magnitude interaction was significant for the face and stimulus tasks. Subsequently, we used the same stimuli and related tasks in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) paradigm (N = 12) to explore the neural correlates of these perceptual processes, analyzed with Dynamic Causal Modeling (DCM) and Bayesian Model Selection. Results revealed changes in effective connectivity between the unimodal Fusiform Face Area (FFA) and Temporal Voice Area (TVA) in a fashion that paralleled the face and voice behavioral interactions observed in the psychophysical data. These findings explore the role in perception of multiple unimodal parallel feedback pathways.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shan Shen ◽  
Xiaolong Jiang ◽  
Federico Scala ◽  
Jiakun Fu ◽  
Paul Fahey ◽  
...  

AbstractNeocortical feedback is critical for processes like attention, prediction, and learning. A mechanistic understanding of its function requires deciphering its cell-type wiring logic. Recent studies revealed a disinhibitory circuit between motor and sensory areas in mice, where feedback preferentially targets vasointestinal peptide-expressing interneurons, in addition to pyramidal cells. It is unknown whether this circuit motif is a general cortico-cortical feedback organizing principle. Combining multiple simultaneous whole-cell recordings with optogenetics we found that in contrast to this wiring rule, feedback between the hierarchically organized visual areas (lateral-medial to V1) preferentially activated somatostatin-expressing interneurons. Functionally, both feedback circuits temporally sharpened feed-forward excitation by eliciting a transient increase followed by a prolonged decrease in pyramidal firing rate under sustained feed-forward input. However, under feed-forward transient input, the motor-sensory feedback facilitated pyramidal cell bursting while visual feedback increased spike time precision. Our findings argue for multiple feedback motifs implementing different dynamic non-linear operations.


2004 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 143-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fred W. Mast ◽  
Charles M. Oman

The role of top-down processing on the horizontal-vertical line length illusion was examined by means of an ambiguous room with dual visual verticals. In one of the test conditions, the subjects were cued to one of the two verticals and were instructed to cognitively reassign the apparent vertical to the cued orientation. When they have mentally adjusted their perception, two lines in a plus sign configuration appeared and the subjects had to evaluate which line was longer. The results showed that the line length appeared longer when it was aligned with the direction of the vertical currently perceived by the subject. This study provides a demonstration that top-down processing influences lower level visual processing mechanisms. In another test condition, the subjects had all perceptual cues available and the influence was even stronger.


2003 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 181-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter Sturm

Abstract: Behavioral and PET/fMRI-data are presented to delineate the functional networks subserving alertness, sustained attention, and vigilance as different aspects of attention intensity. The data suggest that a mostly right-hemisphere frontal, parietal, thalamic, and brainstem network plays an important role in the regulation of attention intensity, irrespective of stimulus modality. Under conditions of phasic alertness there is less right frontal activation reflecting a diminished need for top-down regulation with phasic extrinsic stimulation. Furthermore, a high overlap between the functional networks for alerting and spatial orienting of attention is demonstrated. These findings support the hypothesis of a co-activation of the posterior attention system involved in spatial orienting by the anterior alerting network. Possible implications of these findings for the therapy of neglect are proposed.


2011 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Graf ◽  
Hartwig Kulke ◽  
Christa Sous-Kulke ◽  
Wilfried Schupp ◽  
Stefan Lautenbacher
Keyword(s):  

Aufmerksamkeit kann als Kontrollsystem neuronaler Aktivität verstanden werden, welches Neuroplastizität top-down modulieren hilft. Bisher wurde selten versucht, durch deren gezielte Förderung Funktionswiederherstellungen nach Hirnschädigung zu begünstigen. In vorliegender Studie wurde dies am Beispiel der Aphasie erprobt. 15 Schlaganfallpatienten erhielten ein dreiwöchiges Training der selektiven Aufmerksamkeit mit den PC-Programmen CogniPlus und „Konzentration“ bei fünf Sitzungen pro Woche zusätzlich zur Standardtherapie, 13 weitere bildeten eine Kontrollgruppe ohne Aufmerksamkeitstraining. Zur Effektivitätskontrolle dienten zwei Versionen des Untertests Go/Nogo (Testbatterie zur Aufmerksamkeitsprüfung) und die Kurze Aphasieprüfung. Nach dem Training manifestierte sich zwischen den Untersuchungsgruppen kein Unterschied in Aufmerksamkeits- und Sprachfunktionen; das zusätzliche Aufmerksamkeitstraining war also wirkungslos. Allerdings zeigten Patienten mit deutlichen Aufmerksamkeitsverbesserungen tendenziell weniger Aphasie-Symptome, was die Hypothese aufmerksamkeitsvermittelter Plastizitätsmodulation nach Hirnschädigung partiell stützt.


2001 ◽  
Vol 209 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rainer Bösel
Keyword(s):  
Top Down ◽  

Zusammenfassung. Aufmerksamkeit wird sowohl als Selektivität in der bewußter Verarbeitung oder auch als selektive neuronale Aktivierung verstanden. Die neuronalen Strukturen, die Objektdiskrimination ermöglichen, erlauben eine Interaktion von datengetriebenen und endogenen top-down Prozessen, die zu einer selektiven Bereitstellung von Verarbeitungs-Ressourcen führen. Zielgerichtetes Verhalten erfordert manchmal einen Wechsel in der Ressourcen-Bereitstellung und eine Konzentration von mentaler Aktivität. Aufmerksamkeitswechsel kann als ein zweiphasiger Prozeß verstanden werden, der aus einer breiten Mobilisierung von Gedächtnis-Ressourcen besteht (angezeigt durch EEG-Theta), gefolgt von einer re-organisierenden Einengung neuronaler Aktivität (angezeigt durch langsames EEG-Alpha). Dieser Beitrag unterstützt die Annahme, daß die Analyse des gekoppelten Wechselspiels aus Mobilisierung und Konzentration in bestimmten Teilen der posterioren und anterioren Rindenregionen ein Schlüssel für das Verständnis von Aufmerksamkeitswechsel sein könnte.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document