Neural correlates of priming on occluded figure interpretation in human fusiform cortex

The visual system rapidly completes a partially occluded figure. We probed the completion process by using priming in combination with neuroimaging techniques. Priming leads to more efficient visual processing and thus a reduction in neural activity in relevant brain areas. These areas were studied with high spatial resolution and temporal accuracy with focus on early perceptual processing. We recorded magnetoencephalographic responses from 10 human volunteers in a primed same-different task for test figures. The test figures were preceded by a sequence of two figures, a prime or control figure followed by an occluded figure. The prime figures were one of three possible interpretations of the occluded figures: global and local completions and mosaic interpretation. A significant priming effect was evident: in primed trials as compared with control trials, subjects responded faster and the latency was shorter in the magnetoencephalographic signal for the largest peak between 50 and 300 ms after the occluded figure onset. Tomographic and statistical parametric mapping analyses revealed stages of activation in occipitotemporal areas during occluded figure processing. Notably, we found significantly reduced activation in the right fusiform cortex between 120 and 200 ms after occluded figure onset for primed trials as compared with control trials. We also found significant spatiotemporal differences of local, global and mosaic interpretations for individual subjects but not across subjects. We conclude that modulation of activity in the right fusiform cortex may be a neural correlate of priming in the interpretation of an occluded figure, and that this area acts as a hub for different occluded figure interpretations in this early stage of perception.