The Anticipatory and Task-Driven Nature of Visual Perception. (7th September 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Uithol, Sebo; Bryant, Katherine L; Toni, Ivan; Mars, Rogier B
• Is Part Of: Cerebral cortex. Volume 31:Number 12(2021)
• Page Start: 5354
• Page End: 5362
• Publication Date: 2021-09-07
• Subjects: visual Categorization -- MVPA -- FMRI -- conceptual knowledge; Cerebral cortex -- Periodicals; Brain -- Periodicals; 612.825
• DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhab163
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1047-3211

Abstract

Abstract: Humans have a remarkable capacity to arrange and rearrange perceptual input according to different categorizations. This begs the question whether the categorization is exclusively a higher visual or amodal process, or whether categorization processes influence early visual areas as well. To investigate this we scanned healthy participants in a magnetic resonance imaging scanner during a conceptual decision task in which participants had to answer questions about upcoming images of animals. Early visual cortices (V1 and V2) contained information about the current visual input, about the granularity of the forthcoming categorical decision, as well as perceptual expectations about the upcoming visual stimulus. The middle temporal gyrus, the anterior temporal lobe, and the inferior frontal gyrus were also involved in the categorization process, constituting an attention and control network that modulates perceptual processing. These findings provide further evidence that early visual processes are driven by conceptual expectations and task demands.