Flexible top-down modulation in human ventral temporal cortex.

ABSTRACT: Visual neuroscientists have long characterized attention as inducing a scaling or additive effect on fixed parametric functions describing neural responses (e.g., contrast response functions). Here, we instead propose that top-down effects are more complex and manifest in ways that depend not only on attention but also other cognitive processes involved in executing a task. To substantiate this theory, we analyze fMRI responses in human ventral temporal cortex (VTC) in a study where stimulus eccentricity and cognitive task are varied. We find that as stimuli are presented farther into the periphery, bottom-up stimulus-driven responses decline but top-down attentional enhancement increases substantially. This disproportionate enhancement of weak responses cannot be easily explained by conve

SUBMITTER: Zhang RY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7754186 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature