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The Journal of Neuroscience, January 31, 2007, 27(5):1015-1023; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4593-06.2007

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Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
Visual Cortex Allows Prediction of Perceptual States during Ambiguous Structure-From-Motion

Gijs Joost Brouwer and Raymond van Ee

Helmholtz Institute, University of Utrecht, 3584 CC Utrecht, The Netherlands

Correspondence should be addressed to Raymond van Ee, Department of Physics, University of Utrecht, Helmholtz Institute, Princetonplein 5, 3584 CC Utrecht, The Netherlands. Email: r.vanee{at}phys.uu.nl

We investigated the role of retinotopic visual cortex and motion-sensitive areas in representing the content of visual awareness during ambiguous structure-from-motion (SFM), using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and multivariate statistics (support vector machines). Our results indicate that prediction of perceptual states can be very accurate for data taken from dorsal visual areas V3A, V4D, V7, and MT+ and for parietal areas responsive to SFM, but to a lesser extent for other visual areas. Generalization of prediction was possible, because prediction accuracy was significantly better than chance for both an unambiguous stimulus and a different experimental design. Detailed analysis of eye movements revealed that strategic and even encouraged beneficial eye movements were not the cause of the prediction accuracy based on cortical activation. We conclude that during perceptual rivalry, neural correlates of visual awareness can be found in retinotopic visual cortex, MT+, and parietal cortex. We argue that the organization of specific motion-sensitive neurons creates detectable biases in the preferred direction selectivity of voxels, allowing prediction of perceptual states. During perceptual rivalry, retinotopic visual cortex, in particular higher-tier dorsal areas like V3A and V7, actively represents the content the visual awareness.

Key words: perceptual bistability; structure-from-motion; fMRI; visual cortex; ambiguously rotating spheres; multivariate classification

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Received Aug. 18, 2006; revised Nov. 27, 2006; accepted Dec. 19, 2006.

Correspondence should be addressed to Raymond van Ee, Department of Physics, University of Utrecht, Helmholtz Institute, Princetonplein 5, 3584 CC Utrecht, The Netherlands. Email: r.vanee{at}phys.uu.nl

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