Faculty Opinions recommendation of Attention increases neural selectivity in the human lateral occipital complex.

AbstractObjectives: We used multivoxel pattern analysis (MVPA) to investigate neural selectivity for grasp planning within the left-lateralized temporo-parieto-frontal network of areas (praxis representation network, PRN) typically associated with tool-related actions, as studied with traditional neuroimaging contrasts. Methods: We used data from 20 participants whose task was to plan functional grasps of tools, with either right or left hands. Region of interest and whole-brain searchlight analyses were performed to show task-related neural patterns. Results: MVPA revealed significant contributions to functional grasp planning from the anterior intraparietal sulcus (aIPS) and its immediate vicinities, supplemented by inputs from posterior subdivisions of IPS, and the ventral lateral occipital complex (vLOC). Moreover, greater local selectivity was demonstrated in areas near the superior parieto-occipital cortex and dorsal premotor cortex, putatively forming the dorso-dorsal stream. Conclusions: A contribution from aIPS, consistent with its role in prospective grasp formation and/or encoding of relevant tool properties (e.g., potential graspable parts), is likely to accompany the retrieval of manipulation and/or mechanical knowledge subserved by the supramarginal gyrus for achieving action goals. An involvement of vLOC indicates that MVPA is particularly sensitive to coding of object properties, their identities and even functions, for a support of grip formation. Finally, the engagement of the superior parieto-frontal regions as revealed by MVPA is consistent with their selectivity for transient features of tools (i.e., variable affordances) for anticipatory hand postures. These outcomes support the notion that, compared to traditional approaches, MVPA can reveal more fine-grained patterns of neural activity. (JINS, 2018, 24, 1013–1025)

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Faculty Opinions recommendation of Representation of perceived object shape by the human lateral occipital complex.

Faculty Opinions – Post-Publication Peer Review of the Biomedical Literature ◽

10.3410/f.1000202.5203 ◽

2001 ◽

Author(s):

John Duncan

Keyword(s):

Object Shape ◽

Lateral Occipital Complex

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Neural differentiation is moderated by age in scene- but not face-selective cortical regions

10.1101/2020.01.21.914432 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Sabina Srokova ◽

Paul F. Hill ◽

Joshua D. Koen ◽

Danielle R. King ◽

Michael D. Rugg

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Aging ◽

Neural Differentiation ◽

Memory Performance ◽

Retrosplenial Cortex ◽

Stimulus Category ◽

Age Related ◽

Pattern Similarity ◽

Cortical Regions ◽

Neural Selectivity ◽

Parahippocampal Place Area

AbstractThe aging brain is characterized by neural dedifferentiation – an apparent decrease in the functional selectivity of category-selective cortical regions. Age-related reductions in neural differentiation have been proposed to play a causal role in cognitive aging. Recent findings suggest, however, that age-related dedifferentiation is not equally evident for all stimulus categories and, additionally, that the relationship between neural differentiation and cognitive performance is not moderated by age. In light of these findings, in the present experiment younger and older human adults (males and females) underwent fMRI as they studied words paired with images of scenes or faces prior to a subsequent memory task. Neural selectivity was measured in two scene-selective (parahippocampal place area and retrosplenial cortex) and two face-selective (fusiform and occipital face areas) regions of interest using both a univariate differentiation index and multivoxel pattern similarity analysis. Both methods provided highly convergent results which revealed evidence of age-related reductions in neural dedifferentiation in scene-selective but not face-selective cortical regions. Additionally, neural differentiation in the parahippocampal place area demonstrated a positive, age-invariant relationship with subsequent source memory performance (recall of the image category paired with each recognized test word). These findings extend prior findings suggesting that age-related neural dedifferentiation is not a ubiquitous phenomenon, and that the specificity of neural responses to scenes is predictive subsequent memory performance independently of age.Significance StatementIncreasing age is associated with reduced neural specificity in cortical regions that are selectively responsive to a given perceptual stimulus category (age-related neural dedifferentiation), a phenomenon which has been proposed to contribute to cognitive aging. Recent findings reveal that age-related neural dedifferentiation is not present for all types of visual stimulus categories, and the factors which determine when the phenomenon arises remain unclear. Here, we demonstrate that scene- but not face-selective cortical regions exhibit age-related neural dedifferentiation during an attentionally-demanding task. Additionally, we report that higher neural selectivity in the scene-selective ‘parahippocampal place area’ is associated with better memory performance after controlling for variance associated with age group, adding to evidence that neural differentiation impacts cognition across the adult lifespan.

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Functionally distinct sub-regions in the lateral occipital complex revealed by fMRI responses to abstract 2-dimensional shapes and familiar objects

Journal of Vision ◽

10.1167/5.8.911 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 5 (8) ◽

pp. 911-911 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

D. A. Stanley ◽

N. Rubin

Keyword(s):

Lateral Occipital Complex ◽

Familiar Objects

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Stimulus Familiarity and Expectation Jointly Modulate Neural Activity in the Visual Ventral Stream

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn_a_01281 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 30 (9) ◽

pp. 1366-1377 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Mariya E. Manahova ◽

Pim Mostert ◽

Peter Kok ◽

Jan-Mathijs Schoffelen ◽

Floris P. de Lange

Keyword(s):

Prior Knowledge ◽

Neural Activity ◽

Brain Activity ◽

Ventral Stream ◽

Sensory Response ◽

Inferotemporal Cortex ◽

Response Dynamics ◽

Lateral Occipital Complex ◽

Neurophysiological Studies ◽

Stimulus Familiarity

Prior knowledge about the visual world can change how a visual stimulus is processed. Two forms of prior knowledge are often distinguished: stimulus familiarity (i.e., whether a stimulus has been seen before) and stimulus expectation (i.e., whether a stimulus is expected to occur, based on the context). Neurophysiological studies in monkeys have shown suppression of spiking activity both for expected and for familiar items in object-selective inferotemporal cortex. It is an open question, however, if and how these types of knowledge interact in their modulatory effects on the sensory response. To address this issue and to examine whether previous findings generalize to noninvasively measured neural activity in humans, we separately manipulated stimulus familiarity and expectation while noninvasively recording human brain activity using magnetoencephalography. We observed independent suppression of neural activity by familiarity and expectation, specifically in the lateral occipital complex, the putative human homologue of monkey inferotemporal cortex. Familiarity also led to sharpened response dynamics, which was predominantly observed in early visual cortex. Together, these results show that distinct types of sensory knowledge jointly determine the amount of neural resources dedicated to object processing in the visual ventral stream.

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Neural Correlates of Fixated Low- and High-level Scene Properties during Active Scene Viewing

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn_a_01599 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 32 (10) ◽

pp. 2013-2023

Author(s):

John M. Henderson ◽

Jessica E. Goold ◽

Wonil Choi ◽

Taylor R. Hayes

Keyword(s):

Real World ◽

Visual Analysis ◽

Scene Perception ◽

Active Vision ◽

Semantic Content ◽

Retrosplenial Cortex ◽

Edge Density ◽

Visual Stream ◽

Lateral Occipital Complex ◽

High Level

During real-world scene perception, viewers actively direct their attention through a scene in a controlled sequence of eye fixations. During each fixation, local scene properties are attended, analyzed, and interpreted. What is the relationship between fixated scene properties and neural activity in the visual cortex? Participants inspected photographs of real-world scenes in an MRI scanner while their eye movements were recorded. Fixation-related fMRI was used to measure activation as a function of lower- and higher-level scene properties at fixation, operationalized as edge density and meaning maps, respectively. We found that edge density at fixation was most associated with activation in early visual areas, whereas semantic content at fixation was most associated with activation along the ventral visual stream including core object and scene-selective areas (lateral occipital complex, parahippocampal place area, occipital place area, and retrosplenial cortex). The observed activation from semantic content was not accounted for by differences in edge density. The results are consistent with active vision models in which fixation gates detailed visual analysis for fixated scene regions, and this gating influences both lower and higher levels of scene analysis.

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