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Priming with real motion biases visual cortical response to bistable apparent motion
Qing-fang Zhang1, Yunqing Wen, Deng Zhang
1Institute of Neuroscience, State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China.
Summary
Brief real motion primes the brain, enhancing perception of subsequent apparent motion. This priming effect in the visual cortex (V1) involves short-term neural plasticity, influencing bistable visual perception.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Visual Perception
- Computational Neuroscience
Background:
- Ambiguous visual stimuli, like apparent motion quartet, lead to bistable perception.
- Perception of motion paths is biased by prior exposure to real motion along those paths.
- The neural basis of this priming effect in early visual processing remains unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the neural mechanisms of the priming effect in bistable visual perception.
- To examine how real motion influences neural activity in the primary visual cortex (V1).
Main Methods:
- Voltage-sensitive dye (VSD) imaging in awake mice to measure V1 spatiotemporal activity.
- Intracellular recordings from V1 neurons in anesthetized mice.
Main Results:
- A brief real motion stimulus transiently biased V1 activity towards the spatiotemporal pattern of the real motion.
- Real motion exposure increased subthreshold depolarization in V1 neurons corresponding to the motion path.
- Neural activity changes were observed in the primary visual cortex (V1).
Conclusions:
- Short-term plasticity in early visual circuits, specifically V1, likely underlies the priming effect in bistable visual perception.
- These findings provide insights into the neural basis of perceptual priming and visual ambiguity resolution.
