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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Aug 26, 2025

Development of a Gaze-Contingent Display Framework Designed for Perceptual and Oculomotor Research with Simulated Central Vision Loss

Development of a Gaze-Contingent Display Framework Designed for Perceptual and Oculomotor Research with Simulated Central Vision Loss

Published on: April 11, 2025

Adaptive processing and perceptual learning in visual cortical areas V1 and V4.

Guadalupe Astorga¹, Minggui Chen¹, Yin Yan^2,3,4

¹The Rockefeller University, New York, NY 10065.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

|October 12, 2022

Summary

Visual cortex neurons in primary visual cortex (V1) and V4 adapt to tasks. Task-relevant information initially appears in V4, then V1, suggesting memory consolidation in the brain.

Keywords:

V1 V4 perceptual learning perceptual task top-down

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Last Updated: Aug 26, 2025

Development of a Gaze-Contingent Display Framework Designed for Perceptual and Oculomotor Research with Simulated Central Vision Loss

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Visual Perception
Cognitive Neuroscience

Background:

Neurons in visual cortical areas, including primary visual cortex (V1) and V4, exhibit adaptive processing.
This adaptation is influenced by perceptual tasks, enabling scene segmentation and tuning to task-relevant properties based on top-down instructions.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the differences in information representation between V1 and V4.
To track the development of task-dependent neuronal signals during perceptual learning.
To elucidate the role of these visual areas in memory consolidation.

Main Methods:

Recording neuronal activity in V1 and V4 during a perceptual task.
Analyzing neuronal selectivity for task-relevant stimulus properties.
Monitoring the temporal dynamics of task-related signals over weeks of perceptual learning.

Main Results:

V1 represents detailed stimulus characteristics, while V4 filters information for a binary judgment task.
Task-relevant neuronal selectivity emerged first in V4, followed by V1 over weeks.
Learned information appeared in V1 responses before V4, with a 12-ms delay in V4.

Conclusions:

The representation of learned information shifts between V1 and V4 during perceptual learning.
This dynamic representation suggests a mechanism for systems consolidation of memory within the visual cortex.