Dataset Information

Spatial encoding and underlying circuitry in scene-selective cortex.

ABSTRACT: Three cortical areas (Retro-Splenial Cortex (RSC), Transverse Occipital Sulcus (TOS) and Parahippocampal Place Area (PPA)) respond selectively to scenes. However, their wider role in spatial encoding and their functional connectivity remain unclear. Using fMRI, first we tested the responses of these areas during spatial comparison tasks using dot targets on white noise. Activity increased during task performance in both RSC and TOS, but not in PPA. However, the amplitude of task-driven activity and behavioral measures of task demand were correlated only in RSC. A control experiment showed that none of these areas were activated during a comparable shape comparison task. Secondly, we analyzed functional connectivity of these areas during the resting state. Results revealed a significant connection between RSC and frontal association areas (known to be involved in perceptual decision-making). In contrast, TOS showed functional connections dorsally with the Inferior Parietal Sulcus, and ventrally with the Lateral Occipital Complex--but not with RSC and/or frontal association areas. Moreover, RSC and TOS showed differentiable functional connections with the anterior-medial and posterior-lateral parts of PPA, respectively. These results suggest two parallel pathways for spatial encoding, including RSC and TOS respectively. Only the RSC network was involved in active spatial comparisons.

SUBMITTER: Nasr S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3815999 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Spatial encoding and underlying circuitry in scene-selective cortex.

Nasr Shahin S Devaney Kathryn J KJ Tootell Roger B H RB

NeuroImage 20130717

Three cortical areas (Retro-Splenial Cortex (RSC), Transverse Occipital Sulcus (TOS) and Parahippocampal Place Area (PPA)) respond selectively to scenes. However, their wider role in spatial encoding and their functional connectivity remain unclear. Using fMRI, first we tested the responses of these areas during spatial comparison tasks using dot targets on white noise. Activity increased during task performance in both RSC and TOS, but not in PPA. However, the amplitude of task-driven activity ...[more]

PMID: 23872156

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Project description:In complex real-world scenes, image content is conveyed by a large collection of intertwined visual features. The visual system disentangles these features in order to extract information about image content. Here, we investigate the role of one integral component: the content of spatial frequencies in an image. Specifically, we measure the amount of image content carried by low versus high spatial frequencies for the representation of real-world scenes in scene-selective regions of human visual cortex. To this end, we attempted to decode scene categories from the brain activity patterns of participants viewing scene images that contained the full spatial frequency spectrum, only low spatial frequencies, or only high spatial frequencies, all carefully controlled for contrast and luminance. Contrary to the findings from numerous behavioral studies and computational models that have highlighted how low spatial frequencies preferentially encode image content, decoding of scene categories from the scene-selective brain regions, including the parahippocampal place area (PPA), was significantly more accurate for high than low spatial frequency images. In fact, decoding accuracy was just as high for high spatial frequency images as for images containing the full spatial frequency spectrum in scene-selective areas PPA, RSC, OPA and object selective area LOC. We also found an interesting dissociation between the posterior and anterior subdivisions of PPA: categories were decodable from both high and low spatial frequency scenes in posterior PPA but only from high spatial frequency scenes in anterior PPA; and spatial frequency was explicitly decodable from posterior but not anterior PPA. Our results are consistent with recent findings that line drawings, which consist almost entirely of high spatial frequencies, elicit a neural representation of scene categories that is equivalent to that of full-spectrum color photographs. Collectively, these findings demonstrate the importance of high spatial frequencies for conveying the content of complex real-world scenes.

Dataset Information

Spatial encoding and underlying circuitry in scene-selective cortex.

Publications

Spatial encoding and underlying circuitry in scene-selective cortex.

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