Citation

Chong E, Familiar AM, Shim WM. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 2015; 113(5): 1453-1458.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, National Academy of Sciences)

DOI

10.1073/pnas.1512144113

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

As raw sensory data are partial, our visual system extensively fills in missing details, creating enriched percepts based on incomplete bottom-up information. Despite evidence for internally generated representations at early stages of cortical processing, it is not known whether these representations include missing information of dynamically transforming objects. Long-range apparent motion (AM) provides a unique test case because objects in AM can undergo changes both in position and in features. Using fMRI and encoding methods, we found that the "intermediate" orientation of an apparently rotating grating, never presented in the retinal input but interpolated during AM, is reconstructed in population-level, feature-selective tuning responses in the region of early visual cortex (V1) that corresponds to the retinotopic location of the AM path. This neural representation is absent when AM inducers are presented simultaneously and when AM is visually imagined. Our results demonstrate dynamic filling-in in V1 for object features that are interpolated during kinetic transformations.


Significance

The visual system is often presented with degraded and partial visual information; thus, it must extensively fill in details not present in the physical input. Does the visual system fill in object-specific information as an object's features change in motion? Here, we show that object-specific features (orientation) can be reconstructed from neural activity in early visual cortex (V1) while objects undergo dynamic transformations. Furthermore, our results suggest that this information is not generated by averaging the physically present stimuli or by mechanisms involved in visual imagery, which also requires internal reconstruction of information not physically present. Our study provides evidence that V1 plays a unique role in dynamic filling-in of integrated visual information during kinetic object transformations via feedback signals.

Language: en