Skip to main content

Main menu

  • HOME
  • CONTENT
    • Early Release
    • Featured
    • Current Issue
    • Issue Archive
    • Collections
    • Podcast
  • ALERTS
  • FOR AUTHORS
    • Information for Authors
    • Fees
    • Journal Clubs
    • eLetters
    • Submit
    • Special Collections
  • EDITORIAL BOARD
    • Editorial Board
    • ECR Advisory Board
    • Journal Staff
  • ABOUT
    • Overview
    • Advertise
    • For the Media
    • Rights and Permissions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Feedback
    • Accessibility
  • SUBSCRIBE

User menu

  • Log out
  • Log in
  • My Cart

Search

  • Advanced search
Journal of Neuroscience
  • Log out
  • Log in
  • My Cart
Journal of Neuroscience

Advanced Search

Submit a Manuscript
  • HOME
  • CONTENT
    • Early Release
    • Featured
    • Current Issue
    • Issue Archive
    • Collections
    • Podcast
  • ALERTS
  • FOR AUTHORS
    • Information for Authors
    • Fees
    • Journal Clubs
    • eLetters
    • Submit
    • Special Collections
  • EDITORIAL BOARD
    • Editorial Board
    • ECR Advisory Board
    • Journal Staff
  • ABOUT
    • Overview
    • Advertise
    • For the Media
    • Rights and Permissions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Feedback
    • Accessibility
  • SUBSCRIBE
PreviousNext
Research Articles, Behavioral/Cognitive

Neural representations in the prefrontal cortex are task-dependent for scene attributes but not for scene categories

Yaelan Jung and Dirk B. Walther
Journal of Neuroscience 8 June 2021, JN-RM-2816-20; https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2816-20.2021
Yaelan Jung
University of Toronto, Department of Psychology, Toronto, ON, Canada
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Yaelan Jung
Dirk B. Walther
University of Toronto, Department of Psychology, Toronto, ON, Canada
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Dirk B. Walther
  • Article
  • Info & Metrics
  • eLetters
  • PDF
Loading

Abstract

Natural scenes deliver rich sensory information about the world. Decades of research has shown that the scene-selective network in the visual cortex represents various aspects of scenes. However, less is known about how such complex scene information is processed beyond the visual cortex, such as in the prefrontal cortex. It is also unknown how task context impacts the process of scene perception, modulating which scene content is represented in the brain. In this study, we investigate these questions using scene images from four natural scene categories, which also depict two types of scene attributes, temperature (warm or cold), and sound level (noisy or quiet). A group of healthy human subjects from both sexes participated in the present study using fMRI. In the study, participants viewed scene images under two different task conditions; temperature judgment and sound-level judgment. We analyzed how these scene attributes and categories are represented across the brain under these task conditions. Our findings show that scene attributes (temperature and sound-level) are only represented in the brain when they are task-relevant. However, scene categories are represented in the brain, in both the parahippocampal place area and the prefrontal cortex, regardless of task context. These findings suggest that the prefrontal cortex selectively represents scene content according to task demands, but this task selectivity depends on the types of scene content; task modulates neural representations of scene attributes but not of scene categories.

SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT:

Research has shown that visual scene information is processed in scene-selective regions in the occipital and temporal cortices. Here, we ask how scene content is processed and represented beyond the visual brain, in the prefrontal cortex (PFC). We show that both scene categories and scene attributes are represented in PFC, with interesting differences in task dependency: Scene attributes are only represented in PFC when they are task-relevant, but scene categories are represented in PFC regardless of the task context. Taken together, our work shows that scene information is processed beyond the visual cortex, and scene representation in PFC reflects how adaptively our minds extract relevant information from a scene.

Footnotes

  • The authors declare no competing interests

  • The first author’s current affiliation is the following; Department of Psychology, Princeton University, NJ, USA. This work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada [430-2017-01189 to DBW], and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada [RGPIN-2015-06696 to DBW].

SfN exclusive license.

Back to top
Email

Thank you for sharing this Journal of Neuroscience article.

NOTE: We request your email address only to inform the recipient that it was you who recommended this article, and that it is not junk mail. We do not retain these email addresses.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Neural representations in the prefrontal cortex are task-dependent for scene attributes but not for scene categories
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from Journal of Neuroscience
(Your Name) thought you would be interested in this article in Journal of Neuroscience.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
View Full Page PDF
Citation Tools
Neural representations in the prefrontal cortex are task-dependent for scene attributes but not for scene categories
Yaelan Jung, Dirk B. Walther
Journal of Neuroscience 8 June 2021, JN-RM-2816-20; DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2816-20.2021

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Request Permissions
Share
Neural representations in the prefrontal cortex are task-dependent for scene attributes but not for scene categories
Yaelan Jung, Dirk B. Walther
Journal of Neuroscience 8 June 2021, JN-RM-2816-20; DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2816-20.2021
Twitter logo Facebook logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Jump to section

  • Article
  • Info & Metrics
  • eLetters
  • PDF

Responses to this article

Jump to comment:

No eLetters have been published for this article.

Related Articles

Cited By...

More in this TOC Section

Research Articles

  • Regional Excitatory–Inhibitory Balance Relates to Self-Reference Effect on Recollection via the Precuneus/Posterior Cingulate Cortex–Medial Prefrontal Cortex Connectivity
  • Attention Alters Population Spatial Frequency Tuning
  • Sequence Diversity and Encoded Enzymatic Differences of Monocistronic L1 ORF2 mRNA Variants in the Aged Normal and Alzheimer's Disease Brain
Show more Research Articles

Behavioral/Cognitive

  • Attention Alters Population Spatial Frequency Tuning
  • Complex Impact of Stimulus Envelope on Motor Synchronization to Sound
  • The Molecular Substrates of Second-Order Conditioned Fear in the Basolateral Amygdala Complex
Show more Behavioral/Cognitive
  • Home
  • Alerts
  • Follow SFN on BlueSky
  • Visit Society for Neuroscience on Facebook
  • Follow Society for Neuroscience on Twitter
  • Follow Society for Neuroscience on LinkedIn
  • Visit Society for Neuroscience on Youtube
  • Follow our RSS feeds

Content

  • Early Release
  • Current Issue
  • Issue Archive
  • Collections

Information

  • For Authors
  • For Advertisers
  • For the Media
  • For Subscribers

About

  • About the Journal
  • Editorial Board
  • Privacy Notice
  • Contact
  • Accessibility
(JNeurosci logo)
(SfN logo)

Copyright © 2025 by the Society for Neuroscience.
JNeurosci Online ISSN: 1529-2401

The ideas and opinions expressed in JNeurosci do not necessarily reflect those of SfN or the JNeurosci Editorial Board. Publication of an advertisement or other product mention in JNeurosci should not be construed as an endorsement of the manufacturer’s claims. SfN does not assume any responsibility for any injury and/or damage to persons or property arising from or related to any use of any material contained in JNeurosci.