Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

Motor and Sensory Areas of the Cortex01:14

Motor and Sensory Areas of the Cortex

The cerebral cortex, the brain's outermost layer, is pivotal in processing complex cognitive tasks, emotions, and various sensory inputs and executing voluntary motor activities. This intricate structure is divided into three primary functional areas: the motor areas, sensory areas, and association areas.
Motor Areas
The motor areas located in the frontal lobe are central to controlling voluntary movements. This region is further subdivided into the primary motor cortex and the premotor cortex.
Vision01:24

Vision

Vision is the result of light being detected and transduced into neural signals by the retina of the eye. This information is then further analyzed and interpreted by the brain. First, light enters the front of the eye and is focused by the cornea and lens onto the retina—a thin sheet of neural tissue lining the back of the eye. Because of refraction through the convex lens of the eye, images are projected onto the retina upside-down and reversed.
Anatomy of the Eyeball01:20

Anatomy of the Eyeball

The eye is a spherical, hollow structure composed of three tissue layers. The outer layer — the fibrous tunic, comprises the sclera — a white structure — and the cornea, which is transparent. The sclera encompasses some of the ocular surface, most of which is not visible. However, the 'white of the eye' is distinctively visible in humans compared to other species. The cornea, a clear covering at the front of the eye, enables light penetration. The eye's middle layer, the vascular tunic,...
Photoreceptors and Visual Pathways01:22

Photoreceptors and Visual Pathways

At the molecular level, visual signals trigger transformations in photopigment molecules, resulting in changes in the photoreceptor cell's membrane potential. The photon's energy level is denoted by its wavelength, with each specific wavelength of visible light associated with a distinct color. The spectral range of visible light, classified as electromagnetic radiation, spans from 380 to 720 nm. Electromagnetic radiation wavelengths exceeding 720 nm fall under the infrared category, whereas...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Genetic risk for schizophrenia is associated with increased proportion of indirect connections in brain networks revealed by a semi-metric analysis: evidence from population sample stratified for polygenic risk.

Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991)·2022
Same author

Genetic risk for schizophrenia is associated with altered visually-induced gamma band activity: evidence from a population sample stratified polygenic risk.

Translational psychiatry·2021
Same author

Evaluation and comparison of conjunctival swab polymerase chain reaction results in SARS-CoV-2 patients with and without ocular manifestations.

Indian journal of ophthalmology·2021
Same author

Neural plasticity is modified over the human menstrual cycle: Combined insight from sensory evoked potential LTP and repetition suppression.

Neurobiology of learning and memory·2018
Same author

Indexing sensory plasticity: Evidence for distinct Predictive Coding and Hebbian learning mechanisms in the cerebral cortex.

NeuroImage·2018
Same author

A rare case of bullhorn-injury associated traumatic hernia of anterior abdominal wall managed by laparoscopic sutured tissue-only repair.

Journal of postgraduate medicine·2017

Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 13, 2026

Monocular Visual Deprivation and Ocular Dominance Plasticity Measurement in the Mouse Primary Visual Cortex
08:42

Monocular Visual Deprivation and Ocular Dominance Plasticity Measurement in the Mouse Primary Visual Cortex

Published on: February 8, 2020

BOLD Responses in Human Primary Visual Cortex are Insensitive to Substantial Changes in Neural Activity.

J B Swettenham1, S D Muthukumaraswamy, K D Singh

  • 1Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity (OHBA), Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford Oxford, UK.

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
|March 14, 2013
PubMed
Summary

Blood oxygenation level dependent-functional magnetic resonance imaging (BOLD-fMRI) is insensitive to neural activity changes detected by magnetoencephalography (MEG). MEG revealed stimulus-dependent neural oscillations, unlike BOLD-fMRI.

Keywords:
colorfunctional magnetic resonance imaginggamma oscillationsluminancemagnetoencephalographyvisual system

More Related Videos

In Vivo Visualization of Spontaneous Activity in Neonatal Mouse Sensory Cortex at a Single-Neuron Resolution
06:18

In Vivo Visualization of Spontaneous Activity in Neonatal Mouse Sensory Cortex at a Single-Neuron Resolution

Published on: November 21, 2023

A Large Lateral Craniotomy Procedure for Mesoscale Wide-field Optical Imaging of Brain Activity
10:05

A Large Lateral Craniotomy Procedure for Mesoscale Wide-field Optical Imaging of Brain Activity

Published on: May 7, 2017

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: May 13, 2026

Monocular Visual Deprivation and Ocular Dominance Plasticity Measurement in the Mouse Primary Visual Cortex
08:42

Monocular Visual Deprivation and Ocular Dominance Plasticity Measurement in the Mouse Primary Visual Cortex

Published on: February 8, 2020

In Vivo Visualization of Spontaneous Activity in Neonatal Mouse Sensory Cortex at a Single-Neuron Resolution
06:18

In Vivo Visualization of Spontaneous Activity in Neonatal Mouse Sensory Cortex at a Single-Neuron Resolution

Published on: November 21, 2023

A Large Lateral Craniotomy Procedure for Mesoscale Wide-field Optical Imaging of Brain Activity
10:05

A Large Lateral Craniotomy Procedure for Mesoscale Wide-field Optical Imaging of Brain Activity

Published on: May 7, 2017

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Visual Perception
  • Brain Imaging Techniques

Background:

  • Blood oxygenation level dependent-functional magnetic resonance imaging (BOLD-fMRI) and magnetoencephalography (MEG) are key neuroimaging methods.
  • Understanding the relationship between BOLD-fMRI signals and underlying neural activity is crucial for interpreting brain function.
  • Previous research suggests discrepancies between BOLD-fMRI and other neural measures.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the relationship between BOLD-fMRI and MEG responses in the human visual cortex.
  • To compare how different visual stimuli (isoluminant vs. luminance-modulated) affect BOLD-fMRI and MEG signals.
  • To assess the sensitivity of BOLD-fMRI to neural activity changes reflected in MEG oscillations.

Main Methods:

  • Participants viewed low-level visual stimuli: isoluminant red/green or luminance-modulated black/yellow square-wave gratings at varying spatial frequencies (0.5, 3, 6 cycles/degree).
  • Neural responses were measured simultaneously using 3-tesla BOLD-fMRI and whole-head MEG.
  • MEG data underwent beamformer analysis to identify evoked and oscillatory neural activity.

Main Results:

  • BOLD-fMRI showed bilateral early visual cortex activation, with weak dependence on spatial frequency or luminance contrast.
  • MEG revealed stimulus-dependent evoked responses and oscillatory activity (gamma and high-beta bands).
  • MEG detected spatial frequency-dependent oscillations for luminance-modulated stimuli, but weaker responses at higher frequencies for isoluminant stimuli, challenging theories of gamma oscillations in conscious perception.

Conclusions:

  • The relationship between BOLD-fMRI signals and cortical neural activity is complex and not always linear.
  • BOLD-fMRI may be insensitive to substantial neural activity changes, particularly oscillatory activity.
  • MEG provides complementary information about neural dynamics, revealing stimulus-specific oscillatory patterns missed by BOLD-fMRI.