Top-down modulation in human visual cortex predicts the stability of a perceptual illusion

TY - JOUR

T1 - Top-down modulation in human visual cortex predicts the stability of a perceptual illusion

AU - Kloosterman, Niels A

AU - Meindertsma, Thomas

AU - Hillebrand, Arjan

AU - van Dijk, Bob W

AU - Lamme, Victor A F

AU - Donner, Tobias H

N1 - Copyright © 2015 the American Physiological Society.

PY - 2015/2/15

Y1 - 2015/2/15

N2 - Conscious perception sometimes fluctuates strongly, even when the sensory input is constant. For example, in motion-induced blindness (MIB), a salient visual target surrounded by a moving pattern suddenly disappears from perception, only to reappear after some variable time. Whereas such changes of perception result from fluctuations of neural activity, mounting evidence suggests that the perceptual changes, in turn, may also cause modulations of activity in several brain areas, including visual cortex. In this study, we asked whether these latter modulations might affect the subsequent dynamics of perception. We used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to measure modulations in cortical population activity during MIB. We observed a transient, retinotopically widespread modulation of beta (12-30 Hz)-frequency power over visual cortex that was closely linked to the time of subjects' behavioral report of the target disappearance. This beta modulation was a top-down signal, decoupled from both the physical stimulus properties and the motor response but contingent on the behavioral relevance of the perceptual change. Critically, the modulation amplitude predicted the duration of the subsequent target disappearance. We propose that the transformation of the perceptual change into a report triggers a top-down mechanism that stabilizes the newly selected perceptual interpretation.

AB - Conscious perception sometimes fluctuates strongly, even when the sensory input is constant. For example, in motion-induced blindness (MIB), a salient visual target surrounded by a moving pattern suddenly disappears from perception, only to reappear after some variable time. Whereas such changes of perception result from fluctuations of neural activity, mounting evidence suggests that the perceptual changes, in turn, may also cause modulations of activity in several brain areas, including visual cortex. In this study, we asked whether these latter modulations might affect the subsequent dynamics of perception. We used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to measure modulations in cortical population activity during MIB. We observed a transient, retinotopically widespread modulation of beta (12-30 Hz)-frequency power over visual cortex that was closely linked to the time of subjects' behavioral report of the target disappearance. This beta modulation was a top-down signal, decoupled from both the physical stimulus properties and the motor response but contingent on the behavioral relevance of the perceptual change. Critically, the modulation amplitude predicted the duration of the subsequent target disappearance. We propose that the transformation of the perceptual change into a report triggers a top-down mechanism that stabilizes the newly selected perceptual interpretation.

KW - Adult

KW - Beta Rhythm

KW - Female

KW - Humans

KW - Male

KW - Optical Illusions

KW - Visual Cortex

U2 - 10.1152/jn.00338.2014

DO - 10.1152/jn.00338.2014

M3 - SCORING: Journal article

C2 - 25411458

VL - 113

SP - 1063

EP - 1076

JO - J NEUROPHYSIOL

JF - J NEUROPHYSIOL

SN - 0022-3077

IS - 4

ER -