Gabor and non-Gabor neural representations are shared between visual perception and mental imagery

Huang, Y., Pollick, F. , Liu, M. and Zhang, D. (2023) Gabor and non-Gabor neural representations are shared between visual perception and mental imagery. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 35(6), pp. 1045-1060. (doi: 10.1162/jocn_a_01992) (PMID:37043235)

Abstract

Visual perception and mental imagery have been shown to share a hierarchical topological visual structure of neural representation, despite the existence of dissociation of neural substrate between them in function and structure. However, we have limited knowledge about how the visual hierarchical cortex is involved in visual perception and visual imagery in a unique and shared fashion. In this study, a data set including a visual perception and an imagery experiment with human participants was used to train 2 types of voxel-wise encoding models. These models were based on Gabor features and voxel activity patterns of high-level visual cortex (i.e., fusiform face area, parahippocampal place area, and lateral occipital complex) to predict activity in the early visual cortex (EVC, i.e., V1, V2, V3) during perception, and then tested with respect to the generalization of these models to mental imagery. Our results showed that during perception and imagery, activities in the EVC could be independently predicted by the Gabor features and activity of high-level visual cortex via voxel-wise encoding models, which suggested that perception and imagery might share neural representation in the EVC. We further found Gabor-specific and non-Gabor-specific patterns of neural response to stimuli in the EVC, which were shared by perception and imagery. These findings provide insight into the mechanisms of how visual perception and imagery share representation in the EVC.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: Funding Information: National Natural Science Foundation of China, grant number: 31600907.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Pollick, Professor Frank and Huang, Yingying

Creator Roles

Huang, Y.: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Methodology, Resources, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review and editing
Pollick, F.: Writing – review and editing

• Authors: Huang, Y., Pollick, F., Liu, M., and Zhang, D.
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Psychology & Neuroscience
• Journal Name: Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
• Publisher: MIT Press
• ISSN: 0898-929X
• ISSN (Online): 1530-8898
• Published Online: 04 April 2023
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2023 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• First Published: First published in Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 35(6):1045-1060
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy