Perceiving the tree in the woods: separating brain responses to coincidentally presented scenes and objects

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Perceiving the tree in the woods: separating brain responses to coincidentally presented scenes and objects Ulla Martens1* and Thomas Gruber1 1 University of Osnabrück, Germany Due to methodological problems in separating the brain responses to multiple stimuli, there is a profound lack of electrophysiological studies investigating object recognition in the context of natural scenes. We overcome this limitation by tagging coincidentally presented natural scenes and objects to different presentation frequencies. In due course, the scenes produced a different steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP) than the objects. We analyzed the effect of semantic (in)-coherency between natural scenes and a salient object on SSVEP amplitudes and topography. Additionally, the neuronal generators of the coherency effect were analyzed by means of Variable Resolution Electromagnetic Tomography (VARETA). Results showed: 1) An attentional focus on the scene in coherent and on the object in incoherent conditions. 2) Right inferior and middle frontal neuronal sources of the incoherency effect indicate a top-down attentional shift from the scene to the object. 3) Lateralization effects in the anterior temporal lobe indicate right hemispheric scene processing and left hemispheric object processing. Taken together, we state that the SSVEP is an ideal tool to investigate multiple stimuli displays with an excellent signal-to-noise ratio to investigate neuronal generators of higher cognitive functions. The attentional advantage of incoherent objects in a scene is likely the result of a mismatch between scene-based expectations (i.e. activated concepts) and activated semantic object representations. Keywords: Perception, SSVEP Conference: XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI), Palma, Mallorca, Spain, 25 Sep - 29 Sep, 2011. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Poster Sessions: Neurophysiology of Sensation and Perception Citation: Martens U and Gruber T (2011). Perceiving the tree in the woods: separating brain responses to coincidentally presented scenes and objects. Conference Abstract: XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI). doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2011.207.00335 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 23 Nov 2011; Published Online: 28 Nov 2011. * Correspondence: Dr. Ulla Martens, University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, Germany, umartens@uni-osnabrueck.de Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Ulla Martens Thomas Gruber Google Ulla Martens Thomas Gruber Google Scholar Ulla Martens Thomas Gruber PubMed Ulla Martens Thomas Gruber Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.