Search

Background: Research has shown that visual perceptual learning (VPL) is related to modifying neural activity in higher level decision‐making regions. However, the causal roles of the prefrontal and visual cortexes in VPL are still unclear. Here, we investigated how anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) of the prefrontal and visual cortices modulates VPL in the early and later phases and the role of multiple brain regions. Methods: Perceptual learning on the coherent motion direction identification task included early and later stages. After early training, participants needed to continuously train to reach a plateau; once the plateau was reached, participants entered a later stage. Sixty participants were randomly divided into five groups. Regardless of the training at the early and later stages, four groups received multitarget tDCS over the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (rDLPFC) and right middle temporal area (rMT), single‐target tDCS over the rDLPFC, and single‐target tDCS over the rMT or sham stimulation, and one group was stimulated at the ipsilateral brain region (i.e., left MT). Results: Compared with sham stimulation, multitarget and two single‐target tDCS over the rDLPFC or rMT improved posttest performance and accelerated learning during the early period. However, multitarget tDCS and two single‐target tDCS led to equivalent benefits for VPL. Additionally, these beneficial effects were absent when anodal tDCS was applied to the ipsilateral brain region. For the later period, the above facilitating effects on VPL induced by multitarget or single‐target tDCS disappeared. Conclusions: This study suggested the causal role of the prefrontal and visual cortices in visual motion perceptual learning by anodal tDCS but failed to find greater beneficial effects by simultaneously stimulating the prefrontal and visual cortices. Future research should investigate the functional associations between multiple brain regions to further promote VPL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Each time we make an eye movement, attention moves before the eyes, resulting in a perceptual enhancement at the target. Recent psychophysical studies suggest that this pre-saccadic attention enhances the visual features at the saccade target, whereas covert attention causes only spatially selective enhancements. While previous nonhuman primate studies have found that pre-saccadic attention does enhance neural responses spatially, no studies have tested whether changes in neural tuning reflect an automatic feature enhancement. Here we examined pre-saccadic attention using a saccade foraging task developed for marmoset monkeys (one male and one female). We recorded from neurons in the middle temporal area with peripheral receptive fields that contained a motion stimulus, which would either be the target of a saccade or a distracter as a saccade was made to another location. We established that marmosets, like macaques, show enhanced pre-saccadic neural responses for saccades toward the receptive field, including increases in firing rate and motion information. We then examined if the specific changes in neural tuning might support feature enhancements for the target. Neurons exhibited diverse changes in tuning but predominantly showed additive and multiplicative increases that were uniformly applied across motion directions. These findings confirm that marmoset monkeys, like macaques, exhibit pre-saccadic neural enhancements during saccade foraging tasks with minimal training requirements. However, at the level of individual neurons, the lack of feature-tuned enhancements is similar to neural effects reported during covert spatial attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neural signatures of working memory have been frequently identified in the spiking activity of different brain areas. However, some studies reported no memory-related change in the spiking activity of the middle temporal (MT) area in the visual cortex. However, recently it was shown that the content of working memory is reflected as an increase in the dimensionality of the average spiking activity of the MT neurons. This study aimed to find the features that can reveal memory-related changes with the help of machine-learning algorithms. In this regard, different linear and nonlinear features were obtained from the neuronal spiking activity during the presence and absence of working memory. To select the optimum features, the Genetic algorithm, Particle Swarm Optimization, and Ant Colony Optimization methods were employed. The classification was performed using the Support Vector Machine (SVM) and the K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN) classifiers. Our results suggest that the deployment of spatial working memory can be perfectly detected from spiking patterns of MT neurons with an accuracy of 99.65±0.12 using the KNN and 99.50±0.26 using the SVM classifiers.

Neural synchronization has been engaged in several brain mechanisms. Previous studies have shown that the interaction between the time of spiking activity and phase of local field potentials (LFPs) plays a key role in many cognitive functions. However, the potential role of this spike–LFP phase coupling (SPC) in neural coding is not fully understood. Here, we sought to investigate the role of this SPC for encoding the sensory properties of visual stimuli. To this end, we measured SPC strength in the preferred and anti-preferred motion directions of stimulus presented inside the receptive field of middle temporal (MT) neurons. We found a selective response in terms of SPC strength for different directions of motion. Remarkably, this selective function is inverted with respect to the spiking activity. In other words, the least SPC occurs for the preferred direction (based on the spike rate), and vice versa; the strongest SPC is induced in the anti-preferred direction. Altogether, these findings imply that the neural system may use spike–LFP phase coupling in the primate visual cortex to encode sensory information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fundus of the superior temporal sulcus (FST) in macaques is implicated in the processing of complex motion signals, yet a human homolog remains elusive. Here we considered potential localizers and evaluated their effectiveness in delineating putative FST (pFST), from hMT and MST, two nearby motion-sensitive areas in humans. Nine healthy participants underwent scanning sessions with 2D and 3D motion localizers, as well as population receptive field (pRF) mapping. We observed consistent anterior and inferior activation relative to hMT and MST in response to stimuli that contained coherent 3D, but not 2D, motion. Motion opponency and myelination measures further validated the functional and structural distinction between pFST and hMT/MST. At the same time, standard pRF mapping techniques that reveal the visual field organization of hMT/MST proved suboptimal for delineating pFST. Our findings provide a robust framework for localizing pFST in humans, and underscore its distinct functional role in motion processing., Competing Interests: Declaration of interests The authors declare no competing interests.

Computing behaviorally relevant representations of three-dimensional (3D) motion from two-dimensional (2D) retinal signals is critical for survival. To ascertain where and how the primate visual system performs this computation, we recorded from the macaque middle temporal (MT) area and its downstream target, the fundus of the superior temporal sulcus (area FST). Area MT is a key site of 2D motion processing, but its role in 3D motion processing is controversial. The functions of FST remain highly underexplored. To distinguish representations of 3D motion from those of 2D retinal motion, we contrast responses to multiple motion cues during a motion discrimination task. The results reveal a hierarchical transformation whereby many FST but not MT neurons are selective for 3D motion. Modeling results further show how generalized, cue-invariant representations of 3D motion in FST may be created by selectively integrating the output of 2D motion selective MT neurons. [Display omitted] • Retinal motion is transformed into 3D motion across an MT-to-FST hierarchy • Selective integration of MT responses explains the 3D selectivity of FST neurons • This hierarchical transformation generalizes the decoding of 3D motion • Neuronal activity in FST accounts for behavioral sensitivity to 3D motion Thompson et al. investigate how 2D retinal-motion signals are hierarchically transformed into representations of 3D motion across the macaque visual cortex. The results show that integrating the output of 2D retinal-motion selective MT neurons can produce behaviorally relevant 3D motion representations in FST. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neural signatures of working memory have been frequently identified in the spiking activity of different brain areas. However, some studies reported no memory-related change in the spiking activity of the middle temporal (MT) area in the visual cortex. However, recently it was shown that the content of working memory is reflected as an increase in the dimensionality of the average spiking activity of the MT neurons. This study aimed to find the features that can reveal memory-related changes with the help of machine-learning algorithms. In this regard, different linear and nonlinear features were obtained from the neuronal spiking activity during the presence and absence of working memory. To select the optimum features, the Genetic algorithm, Particle Swarm Optimization, and Ant Colony Optimization methods were employed. The classification was performed using the Support Vector Machine (SVM) and the K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN) classifiers. Our results suggest that the deployment of spatial working memory can be perfectly detected from spiking patterns of MT neurons with an accuracy of 99.65±0.12 using the KNN and 99.50±0.26 using the SVM classifiers.