Radial Frequency Analysis of Contour Shapes in the Visual Cortex.

Viljami R Salmela,Linda Henriksson,Simo Vanni,Wolfgang Einhäuser

doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004719

Viljami R Salmela, Linda Henriksson + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004719

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Abstract

Cumulative psychophysical evidence suggests that the shape of closed contours is analysed by means of their radial frequency components (RFC). However, neurophysiological evidence for RFC-based representations is still missing. We investigated the representation of radial frequency in the human visual cortex with functional magnetic resonance imaging. We parametrically varied the radial frequency, amplitude and local curvature of contour shapes. The stimuli evoked clear responses across visual areas in the univariate analysis, but the response magnitude did not depend on radial frequency or local curvature. Searchlight-based, multivariate representational similarity analysis revealed RFC specific response patterns in areas V2d, V3d, V3AB, and IPS0. Interestingly, RFC-specific representations were not found in hV4 or LO, traditionally associated with visual shape analysis. The modulation amplitude of the shapes did not affect the responses in any visual area. Local curvature, SF-spectrum and contrast energy related representations were found across visual areas but without similar specificity for visual area that was found for RFC. The results suggest that the radial frequency of a closed contour is one of the cortical shape analysis dimensions, represented in the early and mid-level visual areas.

Highlights

To psychophysically investigate contour shape processing beyond local Gabor-like analysis Wilkinson et al [1] introduced radial frequency patterns (Fig 1A), closed contour shapes formed by sinusoidally modulating the radius of a base circle (Fig 1C)
We investigated whether human visual cortex contains representations of radial frequency components
Our results show that the neural mechanisms that utilize radial frequency are located in the early and intermediate visual areas, and provide further support for the idea of radial frequency based representations in shape perception

Summary

Introduction

To psychophysically investigate contour shape processing beyond local Gabor-like analysis Wilkinson et al [1] introduced radial frequency patterns (Fig 1A), closed contour shapes formed by sinusoidally modulating the radius of a base circle (Fig 1C). Any closed shape, such as the outline of human face, can be constructed with multiple radial frequency components (RFC) [2]. Shape analysis of these patterns are RFC specific This indicates that closed contour shapes are analysed— to local spatial frequency and orientation—via narrow-band radial frequency channels. The neurophysiological evidence for RFC-based shape representations is, still missing

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