Spatial Scales of Functional Organization in Human Visual Cortex

Vanderbilt University, Nashville TN

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Abstract

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Until recently, noninvasive neuroimaging studies have been able to resolve only the most coarse aspects of the functional organization of the human brain. However, with the advent of high-field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the millimeter-scale functional organization of human cortex is increasingly within reach. This project aims to investigate the fine structure of human visual cortex using high-field, high-resolution functional MRI, and to develop novel methods by which to quantify the spatial scales on which information is present in patterns of functional activation. Aims 1 and 2 will examine biases and anisotropies within the human ocular dominance and orientation maps, in order to characterize their variability and to better understand the signals underlying the successful decoding of visual percepts by statistical pattern classification algorithms. Aim 3 will explore the spatial scale of object representations in higher-order visual cortex, with the goal of gaining insight into the complex patterns of object-selective responses observed in these areas. These studies will inform our current understanding of the functional organization of the human visual system, and will provide a novel test of the spatial scales of neural selectivity across multiple brain areas. These analytical and imaging techniques, here developed and validated against a normal population, may be applicable to future studies of disorders of cortical organization.