Related Experiment Video
Updated: Nov 30, 2025

Detecting Pre-Stimulus Source-Level Effects on Object Perception with Magnetoencephalography
Published on: July 26, 2019
A source for awareness-dependent figure-ground segregation in human prefrontal cortex
Ling Huang1,2, Lijuan Wang1,2, Wangming Shen3
1Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition, and Education Sciences, Ministry of Education, South China Normal University, 510631 Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
Abstract:
Figure-ground modulation, i.e., the enhancement of neuronal responses evoked by the figure relative to the background, has three complementary components: edge modulation (boundary detection), center modulation (region filling), and background modulation (background suppression). However, the neuronal mechanisms mediating these three modulations and how they depend on awareness remain unclear. For each modulation, we compared both the cueing effect produced in a Posner paradigm and fMRI blood oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) signal in primary visual cortex (V1) evoked by visible relative to invisible orientation-defined figures. We found that edge modulation was independent of awareness, whereas both center and background modulations were strongly modulated by awareness, with greater modulations in the visible than the invisible condition. Effective-connectivity analysis further showed that the awareness-dependent region-filling and background-suppression processes in V1 were not derived through intracortical interactions within V1, but rather by feedback from the frontal eye field (FEF) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), respectively. These results indicate a source for an awareness-dependent figure-ground segregation in human prefrontal cortex.
Related Concept Videos
Association Areas of the Cortex
Prefrontal Association Area: This area is located in the frontal lobe and is involved in planning, decision-making, and moderating social behavior. It connects with primary motor areas,...
Gestalt Principles of Perception
Parallel Processing
Somatosensory, Motor, and Association Cortex
Motor and Sensory Areas of the Cortex
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....

