Feedback of visual object information to foveal retinotopic cortex
Open accessAbstract
The mammalian visual system contains an extensive web of feedback connections projecting from higher cortical areas to lower areas, including primary visual cortex. Although multiple theories have been proposed, the role of these connections in perceptual processing is not understood. We found that the pattern of functional magnetic resonance imaging response in human foveal retinotopic cortex contained information about objects presented in the periphery, far away from the fovea, which has not been predicted by prior theories of feedback. This information was position invariant, correlated with perceptual discrimination accuracy and was found only in foveal, but not peripheral, retinotopic cortex. Our data cannot be explained by differential eye movements, activation from the fixation cross, or spillover activation from peripheral retinotopic cortex or from lateral occipital complex. Instead, our findings indicate that position-invariant object information from higher cortical areas is fed back to foveal retinotopic cortex, enhancing task performance.
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Activity patterns in nonstimulated parts of early visual cortex contain content-specific information from the surrounding visual context, from objects presented in the periphery, and from visual stimuli solely held in working memory rather than being actively perceived.
“For example, activity patterns in nonstimulated parts of early visual cortex contain content-specific information from the surrounding visual context [31, 32], from objects presented in the periphery [33], and from visual stimuli solely held in working memory rather than being actively perceived [34, 35].”
From Decoding sound and imagery content in early visual cortex (2014) · cites this paper as [33]
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“However, top-down predictions can also be categorical and liberated from precise spatiotemporal appearance: like a blackboard can be used to sketch ideas, V1 receives content from peripheral coordinates and places it in foveal coordinates for cognitive comparison [113].”
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- Authors
- Williams, M. A., Baker, C. I., Op de Beeck, H. P., Mok Shim, W., Dang, S., Triantafyllou, C., & Kanwisher, N.
- Affiliations
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research (US)
- National Institutes of Health (US)
- Corresponding author
- Williams, Mark A
- Venue
- Nature Neuroscience
- Published
- 2008-11-02
- Volume
- 11
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- 1439-1445
- ISSN
- 1097-6256 (ISSN-L)
- 1546-1726
- PMC
- PMC2789292
- OpenAlex
- W2134554344
- Cited by
- 235
- References
- 41
- Citations by year
- 2026: 20 · 2025: 29 · 2024: 17 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 13 · 2015: 12 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 13 · 2012: 13
- FWCI
- 6.37
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Nature Neuroscience (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Lirias (KU Leuven) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Medical Research Council
- National Health and Medical Research Council
- National Eye Institute (EY016159, EY013455, R01EY016159, R01EY013455)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition › Visual Attention and Saliency Detection
- Keywords
- feedback connections, primary visual cortex, object information, perceptual discrimination, top-down feedback, visual perception, peripheral vision, lateral occipital complex
- MeSH terms
- Brain Mapping, Discrimination, Psychological, Feedback, Humans, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted, Functional Laterality, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Oxygen, Pattern Recognition, Visual, Photic Stimulation, Time Factors, Visual Cortex, Visual Fields, Visual Pathways
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