Dataset Information

Similarity-Based Fusion of MEG and fMRI Reveals Spatio-Temporal Dynamics in Human Cortex During Visual Object Recognition.

ABSTRACT: Every human cognitive function, such as visual object recognition, is realized in a complex spatio-temporal activity pattern in the brain. Current brain imaging techniques in isolation cannot resolve the brain's spatio-temporal dynamics, because they provide either high spatial or temporal resolution but not both. To overcome this limitation, we developed an integration approach that uses representational similarities to combine measurements of magnetoencephalography (MEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to yield a spatially and temporally integrated characterization of neuronal activation. Applying this approach to 2 independent MEG-fMRI data sets, we observed that neural activity first emerged in the occipital pole at 50-80 ms, before spreading rapidly and progressively in the anterior direction along the ventral and dorsal visual streams. Further region-of-interest analyses established that dorsal and ventral regions showed MEG-fMRI correspondence in representations later than early visual cortex. Together, these results provide a novel and comprehensive, spatio-temporally resolved view of the rapid neural dynamics during the first few hundred milliseconds of object vision. They further demonstrate the feasibility of spatially unbiased representational similarity-based fusion of MEG and fMRI, promising new insights into how the brain computes complex cognitive functions.

SUBMITTER: Cichy RM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4961022 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Similarity-Based Fusion of MEG and fMRI Reveals Spatio-Temporal Dynamics in Human Cortex During Visual Object Recognition.

Cichy Radoslaw Martin RM Pantazis Dimitrios D Oliva Aude A

Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) 20160527 8

Every human cognitive function, such as visual object recognition, is realized in a complex spatio-temporal activity pattern in the brain. Current brain imaging techniques in isolation cannot resolve the brain's spatio-temporal dynamics, because they provide either high spatial or temporal resolution but not both. To overcome this limitation, we developed an integration approach that uses representational similarities to combine measurements of magnetoencephalography (MEG) and functional magneti ...[more]

PMID: 27235099

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Project description:Scenes strongly facilitate object recognition, such as when we make out the shape of a distant boat on the water. Yet, although known to interact in perception, neuroimaging research has primarily provided evidence for separate scene- and object-selective cortical pathways. This raises the question of how these pathways interact to support context-based perception. Here we used a novel approach in human fMRI and MEG studies to reveal supra-additive scene-object interactions. Participants (men and women) viewed degraded objects that were hard to recognize when presented in isolation but easy to recognize within their original scene context, in which no other associated objects were present. fMRI decoding showed that the multivariate representation of the objects' category (animate/inanimate) in object-selective cortex was strongly enhanced by the presence of scene context, even though the scenes alone did not evoke category-selective response patterns. This effect in object-selective cortex was correlated with concurrent activity in scene-selective regions. MEG decoding results revealed that scene-based facilitation of object processing peaked at 320 ms after stimulus onset, 100 ms later than peak decoding of intact objects. Together, results suggest that expectations derived from scene information, processed in scene-selective cortex, feed back to shape object representations in visual cortex. These findings characterize, in space and time, functional interactions between scene- and object-processing pathways.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Although scenes and objects are known to contextually interact in visual perception, the study of high-level vision has mostly focused on the dissociation between their selective neural pathways. The current findings are the first to reveal direct facilitation of object recognition and neural representation by scene background, even in the absence of contextually associated objects. Using a multivariate approach to both fMRI and MEG, we characterize the functional neuroanatomy and neural dynamics of such scene-based object facilitation. Finally, the correlation of this effect with scene-selective activity suggests that, although functionally distinct, scene and object processing pathways do interact at a perceptual level to fill in for insufficient visual detail.

Dataset Information

Similarity-Based Fusion of MEG and fMRI Reveals Spatio-Temporal Dynamics in Human Cortex During Visual Object Recognition.

Publications

Similarity-Based Fusion of MEG and fMRI Reveals Spatio-Temporal Dynamics in Human Cortex During Visual Object Recognition.

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