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The Journal of Neuroscience, October 1, 1999, 19(19):8560-8572
The Representation of Illusory and Real Contours in Human
Cortical Visual Areas Revealed by Functional Magnetic Resonance
Imaging
Janine D.
Mendola,
Anders M.
Dale,
Bruce
Fischl,
Arthur K.
Liu, and
Roger B. H.
Tootell
Massachusetts General Hospital Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Center,
Charlestown, Massachusetts 02129
Illusory contours (perceived edges that exist in the absence of
local stimulus borders) demonstrate that perception is an active
process, creating features not present in the light patterns striking
the retina. Illusory contours are thought to be processed using
mechanisms that partially overlap with those of "real"
contours, but questions about the neural substrate of these percepts
remain. Here, we employed functional magnetic resonance imaging to
obtain physiological signals from human visual cortex while subjects viewed different types of contours, both real and illusory. We sampled
these signals independently from nine visual areas, each defined by
retinotopic or other independent criteria. Using both within- and
across-subject analysis, we found evidence for overlapping sites of
processing; most areas responded to most types of contours. However,
there were distinctive differences in the strength of activity across
areas and contour types. Two types of illusory contours differed in the
strength of activation of the retinotopic areas, but both types
activated crudely retinotopic visual areas, including V3A, V4v, V7, and
V8, bilaterally. The extent of activation was largely invariant across
a range of stimulus sizes that produce illusory contours perceptually,
but it was related to the spatial frequency of displaced-grating
stimuli. Finally, there was a striking similarity in the pattern of
results for the illusory contour-defined shape and a similar shape
defined by stereoscopic depth. These and other results suggest a role
in surface perception for this lateral occipital region that includes
V3A, V4v, V7, and V8.
Key words:
neuroimaging; shape perception; stereopsis; surface
segmentation; visual cortex; lateral occipital
Copyright © 1999 Society for Neuroscience 0270-6474/99/19198560-13$05.00/0
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