Neural oscillations and top-down connectivity are modulated by object-scene congruency

The knowledge we have about how the world is structured is known to influence object recognition. One way this is demonstrated is through a congruency effect, where object recognition is faster and more accurate if items are presented in expected scene contexts. However, our understanding of the dynamic neural mechanisms that underlie congruency effects are under-explored. Using magnetoencephalography (MEG), we examine how the congruency between an object and a prior scene results in changes in the oscillatory activity in the brain, which regions underpin this effect, and whether congruency results arise from top-down or bottom-up modulations of connectivity. We observed that prior scene information impacts the processing of visual objects in behavior, neural activity, and connectivity. Processing objects that were incongruent with the prior scene resulted in slower reaction times, increased low frequency activity in the ventral visual pathway, and increased top-down connectivity from the anterior temporal lobe and frontal cortex to the posterior ventral temporal cortex. Our results reveal that the recurrent dynamics within the ventral visual pathway are modulated by the prior knowledge imbued by our surrounding environment, suggesting that the way we recognize objects is fundamentally linked to their context.