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Feature-based attention modulates orientation-selective responses in human visual cortex.

ABSTRACT: How does feature-based attention modulate neural responses? We used adaptation to quantify the effect of feature-based attention on orientation-selective responses in human visual cortex. Observers were adapted to two superimposed oblique gratings while attending to one grating only. We measured the magnitude of attention-induced orientation-selective adaptation both psychophysically, by the behavioral tilt aftereffect, and physiologically, using fMRI response adaptation. We found evidence for orientation-selective attentional modulation of neuronal responses-a lower fMRI response for the attended than the unattended orientation-in multiple visual areas, and a significant correlation between the magnitude of the tilt aftereffect and that of fMRI response adaptation in V1, the earliest site of orientation coding. These results show that feature-based attention can selectively increase the response of neuronal subpopulations that prefer the attended feature, even when the attended and unattended features are coded in the same visual areas and share the same retinotopic location.

SUBMITTER: Liu T

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2789471 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Feature-based attention modulates orientation-selective responses in human visual cortex.

Liu Taosheng T Larsson Jonas J Carrasco Marisa M

Neuron 20070701 2

How does feature-based attention modulate neural responses? We used adaptation to quantify the effect of feature-based attention on orientation-selective responses in human visual cortex. Observers were adapted to two superimposed oblique gratings while attending to one grating only. We measured the magnitude of attention-induced orientation-selective adaptation both psychophysically, by the behavioral tilt aftereffect, and physiologically, using fMRI response adaptation. We found evidence for o ...[more]

PMID: 17640531

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Project description:Motion boundaries (local changes in visual motion direction) arise naturally when objects move relative to an observer. In human visual cortex, neuroimaging studies have identified a region (the kinetic occipital area [KO]) that responds more strongly to motion-boundary stimuli than to transparent-motion stimuli. However, some functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies suggest that KO may encompass multiple visual areas and single-unit studies in macaque visual cortex have identified neurons selective for motion-boundary orientation in areas V2, V3, and V4, implying that motion-boundary selectivity may not be restricted to a single area. It is not known whether fMRI responses to motion boundaries are selective for motion-boundary orientation, as would be expected if these responses reflected the population activity of motion-boundary-selective neurons. We used an event-related fMRI adaptation protocol to measure orientation-selective responses to motion boundaries in human visual cortex. On each trial, we measured the response to a probe stimulus presented after an adapter stimulus (a vertical or horizontal motion-boundary grating). The probe stimulus was either a motion-boundary grating oriented parallel or orthogonal to the adapter stimulus or a transparent-motion stimulus. Orientation-selective adaptation for motion boundaries--smaller responses for trials in which test and adapter stimuli were parallel to each other--was observed in multiple extrastriate visual areas. The strongest adaptation, relative to the unadapted responses, was found in V3A, V3B, LO1, LO2, and V7. Most of the visual areas that exhibited orientation-selective adaptation in our data also showed response preference for motion boundaries over transparent motion, indicating that most of the human visual areas previously shown to respond to motion boundaries are also selective for motion-boundary orientation. These results suggest that neurons selective for motion-boundary orientation are distributed across multiple human visual cortical areas and argue against the existence of a single region or area specialized for motion-boundary processing.

Dataset Information

Feature-based attention modulates orientation-selective responses in human visual cortex.

Publications

Feature-based attention modulates orientation-selective responses in human visual cortex.

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