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Neuronal correlates of perception in early visual cortex

Nature Neuroscience volume 6, pages 414–420 (2003)Cite this article

Abstract

We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure activity in human early visual cortex (areas V1, V2 and V3) during a challenging contrast-detection task. Subjects attempted to detect the presence of slight contrast increments added to two kinds of background patterns. Behavioral responses were recorded so that the corresponding cortical activity could be grouped into the usual signal detection categories: hits, false alarms, misses and correct rejects. For both kinds of background patterns, the measured cortical activity was retinotopically specific. Hits and false alarms were associated with significantly more cortical activity than were correct rejects and misses. That false alarms evoked more activity than misses indicates that activity in early visual cortex corresponded to the subjects' percepts, rather than to the physically presented stimulus.

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Figure 1: An ideal-observer model of contrast detection.
Figure 2: Experimental stimuli:
Figure 3: Typical fMRI responses for individual subjects:
Figure 4: fMRI response amplitudes averaged across subjects.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank D. Nadell, P. Neri, A. Norcia, K. Shenoy, M. Silver and B. Wandell for comments. This research was supported by a National Eye Institute grant (R01-EY11794) and a grant from the Human Frontier Science Program (RG0070).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Stanford University, 450 Serra Mall, Bldg. 420/400, Stanford, 94309, California, USA

    David Ress

  2. Department of Psychology and Center for Neural Science, New York University, 6 Washington Place, 8th floor, New York, 10003, New York, USA

    David J. Heeger

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Correspondence to David Ress.

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Ress, D., Heeger, D. Neuronal correlates of perception in early visual cortex. Nat Neurosci 6, 414–420 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1024

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