title: Quantitative comparison of the hemodynamic activation elicited by cardinal and oblique gratings with functional near-infrared spectroscopy.
abstract: Evidence has been accumulated for over a century indicating that the visual system of humans and many animals is more sensitive to contour stimulation at vertical or horizontal orientations than oblique orientations. However, the neural basis for this orientation anisotropy is still a subject of debate. In the present study, we recorded brain activity over the parietal-occipital and frontal lobes with functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) when human participants were presented with gratings in different orientations. The oblique gratings induced a much larger change in the oxygenated hemoglobin concentration than vertical and horizontal gratings in the left occipital lobe. However, we did not find any significant orientation anisotropy in the frontal lobe. Our study showed that different quantitative changes in the hemoglobin concentrations occurred in response to differently oriented stimuli in the visual cortex and that fNIRS could potentially be a valuable tool in the assessment of the hemodynamic responses of the visual system.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
authors.forename: Meirong
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Fang
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: An
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: An
authors.forename: Fenghua
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.forename: Hanli
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Haijing
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Niu
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Song
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000502:physiology; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005556:Form Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000098:blood supply / Q000502:physiology; D059907:Functional Neuroimaging; D006454:Hemoglobins / Q000032:analysis*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009778:Occipital Lobe / Q000098:blood supply / Q000502:physiology; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000098:blood supply / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology; D019265:Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000098:blood supply / Q000502:physiology; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D006454:Hemoglobins