Population receptive field models capture the event-related magnetoencephalography response with millisecond resolution

Abstract

Abstract Much of the visual system is organized into visual field maps. In humans, this organization can be studied non-invasively by estimating the receptive fields of populations of neurons (population receptive fields; pRFs) with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). However, fMRI cannot capture the temporal dynamics of visual processing that operate on a millisecond scale. Magnetoencephalography (MEG) does provide this temporal resolution but generally lacks the required spatial resolution. Here, we introduce a forward modeling approach that combines fMRI and MEG, enabling us to estimate pRFs with millisecond resolution. Using fMRI, we estimated the participant’s pRFs using conventional pRF-modeling. We then combined the pRF models with a forward model that transforms the cortical responses to the MEG sensors. This enabled us to predict event-related field responses measured with MEG while the participants viewed brief (100 ms) contrast-defined bar and circle shapes. We computed the goodness of fit between the predicted and measured MEG responses across time using cross-validated variance explained. We found that the fMRI-estimated pRFs explained up to 91% of the variance in individual MEG sensor’s responses. The variance explained varied over time and peaked between 75 ms to 250 ms after stimulus onset. Perturbing the pRF positions decreased the explained variance, suggesting that the pRFs were driving the MEG responses. In conclusion, pRF models can predict event-related MEG responses, enabling routine investigation of the spatiotemporal dynamics of human pRFs with millisecond resolution.