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Stimulus-specific Cortical Visual Evoked Potential Morphological Patterns
Published on: May 12, 2019
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Spontaneously emerging patterns in human visual cortex and their functional connectivity are linked to the patterns
DoHyun Kim1, Tomer Livne2,3, Nicholas V Metcalf3
1Department of Biomedical Engineering, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri.
Journal of Neurophysiology
|September 23, 2020
Summary
Spontaneous brain activity patterns in the visual cortex are not random noise but are linked to stimulus-evoked patterns. These patterns influence how brain regions interact, suggesting a representational role for spontaneous neural activity.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Brain Imaging
Background:
- Spontaneous brain activity was historically considered neural noise.
- Recent findings reveal spatiotemporal regularities in spontaneous neural activity.
- The functional role of spontaneous brain activity remains an active area of research.
Purpose of the Study:
- To test if spontaneous brain activity patterns encode representations evoked by visual stimuli.
- To investigate the relationship between spontaneous and stimulus-evoked activity in the human visual cortex.
- To determine if spontaneous activity patterns influence functional connectivity between brain regions.
Main Methods:
- Compared multivertex patterns of spontaneous activity with patterns evoked by visual stimuli (faces, bodies, scenes).
- Used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in human participants during resting-state and task-based scans.
- Correlated stimulus-evoked patterns with resting-state patterns and analyzed pattern-based functional connectivity.
Main Results:
- Resting-state activity patterns showed minimal direct correlation with specific stimulus-evoked patterns.
- The variability of correlations was higher for preferred stimulus categories within regions of interest (ROIs).
- Spontaneous activity patterns influenced functional connectivity, with category-specific patterns fluctuating preferentially between related ROIs.
Conclusions:
- Spontaneous multivertex activity patterns are functionally related to stimulus-evoked patterns.
- These findings support the hypothesis that spontaneous brain activity serves a representational function.
- Spontaneous activity plays a role in shaping functional brain networks.
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