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Stimulus-specific Cortical Visual Evoked Potential Morphological Patterns
Published on: May 12, 2019
Category expectation modulates baseline and stimulus-evoked activity in human inferotemporal cortex
Amrita M Puri1, Ewa Wojciulik, Charan Ranganath
1Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis, 95618, USA. ampuri@ucdavis.edu
Brain Research
|September 15, 2009
Summary
Category expectation influences brain activity in visual areas, affecting both baseline and stimulus-evoked responses. This top-down modulation, particularly in inferotemporal cortex, is driven by a frontoparietal attentional network.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Visual Perception
Background:
- Previous research shows expectation of low-level features influences extrastriate visual areas.
- The impact of higher-level property expectation on visual responses remains unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how category expectation affects baseline and stimulus-evoked activity in higher-level, category-selective inferotemporal (IT) visual areas.
- To determine if expectation influences activity in the fusiform face area (FFA) and parahippocampal place area (PPA).
Main Methods:
- Event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was employed.
- Participants viewed category cues (FACE or HOUSE) followed by matching or mismatching images.
- Baseline and stimulus-evoked activity in IT areas were analyzed.
Main Results:
- Baseline activity in FFA and PPA was higher when expecting the preferred category.
- Stimulus-evoked responses showed an initial bias and increased selectivity following preferred category expectation.
- Activity in frontal and parietal areas correlated with baseline shifts and increased selectivity in IT areas.
Conclusions:
- Category expectation significantly modulates both baseline and stimulus-evoked activity in category-selective IT visual areas.
- A frontoparietal attentional control network likely drives these top-down modulations.
- Expectation enhances visual processing by biasing and sharpening neural representations.
