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Dissociating representations of affect and motion in visual cortices
James H Kryklywy1, Brandon J Forys2, Joana B Vieira3
1Department of Psychology, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Canada. j.kryklywy@psych.ubc.ca.
Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience
|August 1, 2023
Summary
Visual motion direction influences emotional responses. The study found that the motion-selective area V5/MT+ integrates emotion with motion perception, similar to ventral visual streams, not dorsal ones.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Visual Perception
- Emotion Processing
Background:
- Emotional responses are influenced by visual motion direction.
- The interaction between emotion processing and motion perception in visual cortical areas is not well understood.
- The motion-selective visual area V5/MT+ is anatomically and functionally positioned between dorsal and ventral visual streams, which process information differently.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how emotion and motion perception interact within the brain.
- To determine if the V5/MT+ area represents or integrates emotion with perceived motion direction.
- To understand the relationship of V5/MT+ to canonical visual processing streams through emotion-dependent modulation.
Main Methods:
- Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to study brain activity.
- Approaching, receding, or static motion after-effects (MAEs) were induced on visual stimuli with positive, negative, and neutral emotional content.
- An independent localizer scan identified the V5/MT+ area.
Main Results:
- Emotion representations in V5/MT+ showed response profiles similar to ventral visual structures.
- V5/MT+ and ventral visual structures were sensitive to the emotional content of stimuli.
- Dorsal visual structures were not sensitive to the emotional content of the stimuli.
Conclusions:
- V5/MT+ plays a critical role in representing and processing visually acquired emotional content.
- V5/MT+ may integrate affective visual information to enhance motion perception, particularly for biologically relevant stimuli.
- The findings suggest V5/MT+ aligns more with ventral than dorsal visual processing streams in its response to emotional cues.
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