title: Rapid serial visual presentation for the determination of neural selectivity in area STSa.
abstract: We show that rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) in combination with a progressive reduction of the stimulus set is an efficient method for describing the selectivity properties of high-level cortical neurons in single-cell electrophysiological recording experiments. Rapid presentation allows the experimental testing of a significantly larger number of stimuli, which can reduce the subjectivity of the results due to stimulus selection and the lack of sufficient control stimuli. We prove the reliability of the rapid presentation and stimulus reduction methods by repeated experiments and the comparison of different testing conditions. Our results from neurons in area STSa of the macaque temporal cortex provide a well-controlled confirmation for the existence of a population of cells that respond selectively to stimuli containing faces. View tuning properties measured using this method also confirmed earlier results. In addition, we found a population of cells that respond reliably to complex non-face stimuli, though their tuning properties are not obvious.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, Fife, KY16 9JU, UK. peter.foldiak@st-andrews.ac.uk
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Földiák
authors.forename: Dengke
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Keysers
authors.forename: Robin
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Edwards
authors.forename: David Ian
authors.initials: DI
authors.lastname: Perrett
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004594:Electrophysiology; D005145:Face; D008253:Macaca mulatta; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013997:Time Factors; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology*