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Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) of the Visual Cortex with Wide-View Retinotopic Stimulation

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Perceptual grouping and inverse fMRI activity patterns in human visual cortex.

Fang Fang¹, Daniel Kersten, Scott O Murray

¹Department of Psychology and Key Laboratory of Machine Perception, Peking University, Beijing, P.R. China. ffang@pku.edu.cn

Journal of Vision

|January 17, 2009

Summary

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) reveals that perceiving a coherent shape increases activity in the lateral occipital complex (LOC) and decreases activity in primary visual cortex (V1). This suggests feedback from higher visual areas influences lower visual processing.

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Topographical Estimation of Visual Population Receptive Fields by fMRI

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Published on: February 3, 2015

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Cognitive Science
Visual Perception

Background:

The human visual system processes information hierarchically, from basic features to complex object recognition.
Perceptual grouping, the process by which visual elements are unified into coherent objects, is a fundamental aspect of visual perception.
The interplay between higher and lower visual areas in shaping perception remains an active area of research.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the neural mechanisms underlying perceptual grouping using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
To examine the roles of the lateral occipital complex (LOC) and primary visual cortex (V1) in processing bistable visual stimuli.
To test the hypothesis that feedback from higher to lower visual areas modulates activity during shape perception.

Main Methods:

Employing fMRI to measure brain activity in human participants.
Presenting a perceptually bistable visual stimulus that could be perceived as either a coherent shape or random elements.
Analyzing BOLD signal changes in the LOC and V1 in relation to subjective perceptual experience.

Main Results:

Increased activity was observed in the LOC when participants perceived a coherent shape.
A simultaneous reduction in activity was found in V1 when the stimulus elements were perceived as grouped.
These findings indicate differential modulation of activity in higher and lower visual areas during perceptual organization.

Conclusions:

The results support models of visual processing that incorporate feedback connections from higher to lower visual areas.
Feedback from areas like the LOC to V1 appears to play a crucial role in suppressing irrelevant information and enhancing coherent shape perception.
This study provides evidence for top-down influences shaping early visual processing during perceptual grouping.