Gabor and Non-Gabor Neural Representations Are Shared between Visual Perception and Mental Imagery

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Neuroimaging
• Visual System Research

Background:

• Visual perception and mental imagery share hierarchical topological neural structures.
• Despite shared structures, neural substrates for perception and imagery show functional and structural dissociation.
• Limited understanding exists on how the visual hierarchical cortex uniquely and jointly contributes to perception and imagery.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the shared and unique involvement of the visual hierarchical cortex in visual perception and mental imagery.
• To determine if neural representations in the early visual cortex (EVC) are shared between perception and imagery.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a dataset from human participants undergoing both visual perception and imagery experiments.
• Trained two types of voxel-wise encoding models using Gabor features and high-level visual cortex activity (FFA, PPA, LOC) to predict EVC (V1, V2, V3) activity during perception.
• Tested the generalization of these models to predict EVC activity during mental imagery.

Main Results:

• Voxel-wise encoding models successfully predicted EVC activity independently from both Gabor features and high-level visual cortex activity during both perception and imagery.
• Findings suggest that perception and imagery share neural representations within the EVC.
• Identified shared Gabor-specific and non-Gabor-specific patterns of neural response in the EVC for both perception and imagery.

Conclusions:

• Visual perception and mental imagery share neural representations in the early visual cortex.
• The findings elucidate the mechanisms underlying shared representations between visual perception and imagery in the EVC.