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Spontaneously Emerging Patterns in Human Visual Cortex Reflect Responses to Naturalistic Sensory Stimuli
Meytal Wilf1, Francesca Strappini1, Tal Golan2
1Department of Neurobiology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel.
Cerebral Cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991)
|November 18, 2015
Summary
Resting-state functional connectivity in the brain mirrors naturalistic visual experiences, not artificial stimuli. This suggests spontaneous brain activity reflects real-world visual statistics.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Functional Neuroimaging
Background:
- The human cortex exhibits spontaneous functional connectivity patterns, known as resting-state networks, even without external stimuli.
- It is hypothesized that daily cortical network activations shape these resting-state patterns.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether naturalistic visual stimuli, compared to artificial stimuli, better predict spontaneous functional connectivity patterns in retinotopic visual areas.
- To test the hypothesis that resting-state connectivity reflects the statistical properties of natural visual activations.
Main Methods:
- Blood oxygen level-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging (BOLD-fMRI) was used to measure brain activity.
- Connectivity patterns during rest were compared to those evoked by naturalistic stimuli (movies) and standard retinotopic mapping stimuli (polar and eccentricity mapping).
- The influence of intentional visual imagery was controlled for by including an auditory task condition.
Main Results:
- Connectivity patterns evoked by movie stimuli were significantly more similar to spontaneous resting-state patterns than those evoked by polar or eccentricity mapping stimuli.
- These findings were replicated even when participants performed an auditory task, suggesting the effect is not driven by visual imagery.
- Resting-state connectivity patterns in retinotopic areas align more closely with naturalistic visual activations.
Conclusions:
- Spontaneous functional connectivity patterns in human retinotopic areas reflect the statistical regularities of cortical coactivations during natural vision.
- Artificial, controlled stimuli used in standard mapping paradigms do not accurately represent the patterns shaped by natural visual experiences.
- Resting-state functional connectivity may serve as a more ecologically valid measure of brain network organization shaped by real-world interactions.
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