Abstract
Previous neuroimaging studies have shown that inferior parietal and ventral occipital cortex are involved in the transsaccadic processing of visual object orientation. Here, we investigated whether the same areas are also involved in transsaccadic processing of a different feature, namely, spatial frequency. We employed a functional magnetic resonance imaging paradigm where participants briefly viewed a grating stimulus with a specific spatial frequency that later reappeared with the same or different frequency, after a saccade or continuous fixation. First, using a whole-brain Saccade > Fixation contrast, we localized two frontal (left precentral sulcus and right medial superior frontal gyrus), four parietal (bilateral superior parietal lobule and precuneus), and four occipital (bilateral cuneus and lingual gyri) regions. Whereas the frontoparietal sites showed task specificity, the occipital sites were also modulated in a saccade control task. Only occipital cortex showed transsaccadic feature modulations, with significant repetition enhancement in right cuneus. These observations (parietal task specificity, occipital enhancement, right lateralization) are consistent with previous transsaccadic studies. However, the specific regions differed (ventrolateral for orientation, dorsomedial for spatial frequency). Overall, this study supports a general role for occipital and parietal cortex in transsaccadic vision, with a specific role for cuneus in spatial frequency processing.
Highlights
Previous neuroimaging studies have shown that inferior parietal and ventral occipital cortex are involved in the transsaccadic processing of visual object orientation
It is well established that human posterior parietal cortex (PPC; the mid-posterior parietal sulcus) is involved in transsaccadic spatial updating, i.e., the updating of object location relative to each new eye position[16,17,18,19,20]
While SMG and ‘putative V4’ might play a general role in transsaccadic updating of all visual features, it is possible that the brain engages different cortical networks for transsaccadic processing of different features, as it does during prolonged visual fixations[32,33]
Summary
Previous neuroimaging studies have shown that inferior parietal and ventral occipital cortex are involved in the transsaccadic processing of visual object orientation. This study supports a general role for occipital and parietal cortex in transsaccadic vision, with a specific role for cuneus in spatial frequency processing When saccades occur, both object locations and their associated features shift relative to eye position. A ventrolateral occipital area (‘putative V4′) showed repetition enhancement Both observations suggest underlying cortical activity modulations specific to transsaccadic interactions of object orientation. Consistent with these findings, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) of PPC (just posterior to SMG) disrupted transsaccadic memory of multiple object o rientations[22,23], and TMS over occipital cortex disrupted gaze-centered updating of object o rientation[24]. Possibly providing the motor signal that drives the updating[23,25] These findings implicate both occipital cortex and PPC in the transsaccadic updating of both object location and orientation. While SMG and ‘putative V4’ might play a general role in transsaccadic updating of all visual features, it is possible that the brain engages different cortical networks for transsaccadic processing of different features, as it does during prolonged visual fixations[32,33]
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