Visuospatial coding as ubiquitous scaffolding for human cognition

Groen, Iris; Dekker, Tessa M.; Knapen, Tomas; Silson, Edward

doi:10.1016/j.tics.2021.10.011

Cited by 51 publications

(50 citation statements)

References 145 publications

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“…Instead, we might think of each glance or word as initiating a localized cortical disturbance that ‘escapes’ into non-sensorimotor mapped cortex, and which can then be attached to other localized disturbances there to create a temporary, spatially extended ‘molecular’ pattern that is capable of propagating across parts of the cortical sheet while retaining its spatial topological structure. This initially might seem a strange picture; but it would not be out of place with the picture of spatially coherent, soliton-like traveling waves and bumps that we observed in during the reach-to-eat task, and with the partial overlap between cortex with maps and cortex involving in language and scene integration in temporal, parietal, and frontal cortex ( Huang and Sereno, 2013 ; Sood and Sereno, 2016 , 2018 ; Popham et al, 2021 ; Groen et al, 2022 ).…”

Section: Conclusion and Speculationmentioning

confidence: 66%

Topological Maps and Brain Computations From Low to High

Sereno

Sood

Huang

2022

Front. Syst. Neurosci.

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We first briefly summarize data from microelectrode studies on visual maps in non-human primates and other mammals, and characterize differences among the features of the approximately topological maps in the three main sensory modalities. We then explore the almost 50% of human neocortex that contains straightforward topological visual, auditory, and somatomotor maps by presenting a new parcellation as well as a movie atlas of cortical area maps on the FreeSurfer average surface, fsaverage. Third, we review data on moveable map phenomena as well as a recent study showing that cortical activity during sensorimotor actions may involve spatially locally coherent traveling wave and bump activity. Finally, by analogy with remapping phenomena and sensorimotor activity, we speculate briefly on the testable possibility that coherent localized spatial activity patterns might be able to ‘escape’ from topologically mapped cortex during ‘serial assembly of content’ operations such as scene and language comprehension, to form composite ‘molecular’ patterns that can move across some cortical areas and possibly return to topologically mapped cortex to generate motor output there.

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Section: Conclusion and Speculationmentioning

confidence: 66%

Topological Maps and Brain Computations From Low to High

Sereno

Sood

Huang

2022

Front. Syst. Neurosci.

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“…Therefore, there is a lack of data on topographic variability in feature sensitivity in higher visual areas. However, recent advances in fMRI technology have revealed ubiquitous location-dependent functional sensitivity in higher order areas of the primate visual system ( Hasson et al, 2002 ; Groen et al, 2021 ). Multiple retinotopic maps have been reported to correlate with previously known functional specializations in ventral temporal/inferior temporal (IT) cortex for faces, scenes, and buildings.…”

Section: Parallel Stream Organization Reveals Species-specific Joint ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In early visual areas that exhibit highly organized retinotopic maps, understanding this relationship has focused on the fine scale organization of cortical circuits that ensures uniform coverage for stimulus features across visual space ( Swindale et al, 2000 ; White et al, 2001 ; Bosking et al, 2002 ; Buzás et al, 2003 ; Yu et al, 2005 ), rather than how response properties might differ for different regions of visual space. Likewise, in higher visual areas that are specialized to represent specific stimulus properties, the spatial locations associated with the stimulus attributes of a given area are only recently being characterized ( Groen et al, 2021 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What and Where: Location-Dependent Feature Sensitivity as a Canonical Organizing Principle of the Visual System

Sedigh-Sarvestani

Fitzpatrick

2022

Front. Neural Circuits

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Traditionally, functional representations in early visual areas are conceived as retinotopic maps preserving ego-centric spatial location information while ensuring that other stimulus features are uniformly represented for all locations in space. Recent results challenge this framework of relatively independent encoding of location and features in the early visual system, emphasizing location-dependent feature sensitivities that reflect specialization of cortical circuits for different locations in visual space. Here we review the evidence for such location-specific encoding including: (1) systematic variation of functional properties within conventional retinotopic maps in the cortex; (2) novel periodic retinotopic transforms that dramatically illustrate the tight linkage of feature sensitivity, spatial location, and cortical circuitry; and (3) retinotopic biases in cortical areas, and groups of areas, that have been defined by their functional specializations. We propose that location-dependent feature sensitivity is a fundamental organizing principle of the visual system that achieves efficient representation of positional regularities in visual experience, and reflects the evolutionary selection of sensory and motor circuits to optimally represent behaviorally relevant information. Future studies are necessary to discover mechanisms underlying joint encoding of location and functional information, how this relates to behavior, emerges during development, and varies across species.

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“…To characterize the effects of background and spatial attention on location representations in visual cortex, we defined regions-of-interest (ROIs) along the ventral stream, since HR predicted effects to emerge there based on previous studies (Hong et al, 2016;Graumann et al, 2022). We additionally included ROIs in the dorsal stream, since it has been implicated in visuospatial (Ungerleider and Haxby, 1994;Milner and Goodale, 2006;Kravitz et al, 2011;Groen et al, 2022) and attentional processing (Silver et al, 2005;Szczepanski et al, 2010;Sprague and Serences, 2013).…”

Section: Clutter and Attention Independently Affect Location Represen...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Independent spatiotemporal effects of spatial attention and background clutter on human object location representations

Graumann

Wallenwein

Cichy

2022

Preprint

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1.AbstractSpatial attention helps us to efficiently localize objects in cluttered environments. However, the processing stage at which spatial attention modulates object location representations remains unclear. Here we investigated this question identifying processing stages in time and space in an EEG and fMRI experiment respectively. As both object location representations and attentional effects have been shown to depend on the background on which objects appear, we included object background as an experimental factor. During the experiments, human participants viewed images of objects appearing in different locations on blank or cluttered backgrounds while either performing a task on fixation or on the periphery to direct their covert spatial attention away or towards the objects. We used multivariate classification to assess object location information. Consistent across the EEG and fMRI experiment, we show that spatial attention modulated location representations during late processing stages (>150ms, in middle and high ventral visual stream areas) independent of background condition. Our results clarify the processing stage at which attention modulates object location representations in the ventral visual stream and show that attentional modulation is a cognitive process separate from recurrent processes related to the processing of objects on cluttered backgrounds.

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Visuospatial coding as ubiquitous scaffolding for human cognition

Cited by 51 publications

References 145 publications

Topological Maps and Brain Computations From Low to High

Topological Maps and Brain Computations From Low to High

What and Where: Location-Dependent Feature Sensitivity as a Canonical Organizing Principle of the Visual System

Independent spatiotemporal effects of spatial attention and background clutter on human object location representations

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