Where bottom-up meets top-down: neuronal interactions during perception and imagery.
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have identified category-selective regions in ventral occipito-temporal cortex that respond preferentially to faces and other objects. The extent to which these patterns of activation are modulated by bottom-up or top-down mechanisms is currently unknown. We combined fMRI and dynamic causal modelling to investigate neuronal interactions between occipito-temporal, parietal and frontal regions, during visual perception and visual imagery of faces, houses and chairs. Our results indicate that, during visual perception, category-selective patterns of activation in extrastriate cortex are mediated by content-sensitive forward connections from early visual areas. In contrast, during visual imagery, category-selective activation is mediated by content-sensitive backward connections from prefrontal cortex. Additionally, we report content-unrelated connectivity between parietal cortex and the category-selective regions, during both perception and imagery. Thus, our investigation revealed that neuronal interactions between occipito-temporal, parietal and frontal regions are task- and stimulus-dependent. Sensory representations of faces and objects are mediated by bottom-up mechanisms arising in early visual areas and top-down mechanisms arising in prefrontal cortex, during perception and imagery respectively. Additionally non-selective, top-down processes, originating in superior parietal areas, contribute to the generation of mental images, regardless of their content, and their maintenance in the 'mind's eye'.
Mechelli
Andrea
A
Wellcome Department of Imaging Neuroscience, Institute of Neurology, 12 Queen Square, London, WC1N 3BG, UK. andream@fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk
Price
Cathy J
CJ
Friston
Karl J
KJ
Ishai
Alumit
A
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination / Q000502:physiology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*