Increasing associative plasticity in temporo-occipital back-projections improves visual perception of emotions.

ABSTRACT: The posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) is a critical node in a network specialized for perceiving emotional facial expressions that is reciprocally connected with early visual cortices (V1/V2). Current models of perceptual decision-making increasingly assign relevance to recursive processing for visual recognition. However, it is unknown whether inducing plasticity into reentrant connections from pSTS to V1/V2 impacts emotion perception. Using a combination of electrophysiological and neurostimulation methods, we demonstrate that strengthening the connectivity from pSTS to V1/V2 selectively increases the ability to perceive facial expressions associated with emotions. This behavior is associated with increased electrophysiological activity in both these brain regions, particularly i

SUBMITTER: Borgomaneri S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10517146 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature