Perception of Impossible Scenes Reveals Differential Hippocampal and Parahippocampal Place Area Contributions to Spatial Coherency

ABSTRACT Surprisingly little is known about how the brain combines spatial elements to form a coherent percept. Regions that may underlie this process include the hippocampus (HC) and parahippocampal place area (PPA), regions central to spatial perception but whose role in spatial coherency has not...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Hippocampus 2017-01, Vol.27 (1), p.61-76
Main Authors: Douglas, Danielle, Thavabalasingam, Sathesan, Chorghay, Zahraa, O'Neil, Edward B., Barense, Morgan D., Lee, Andy C. H.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Brain Mapping
Eye Movement Measurements
Eye Movements - physiology
Female
fMRI
hippocampus
Hippocampus - diagnostic imaging
Hippocampus - physiology
Humans
Illusions
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
Judgment - physiology
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
medial temporal lobe
memory
Neuropsychological Tests
Parahippocampal Gyrus - diagnostic imaging
Parahippocampal Gyrus - physiology
perception
Photic Stimulation
Place Cells - physiology
Recognition (Psychology) - physiology
Space Perception - physiology
Visual Perception - physiology
Young Adult
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Summary:ABSTRACT Surprisingly little is known about how the brain combines spatial elements to form a coherent percept. Regions that may underlie this process include the hippocampus (HC) and parahippocampal place area (PPA), regions central to spatial perception but whose role in spatial coherency has not been explored. Participants were scanned with functional MRI while they judged whether Escher‐like scenes were possible or impossible. Univariate analyses revealed differential HC and PPA involvement, with greater HC activity during spatial incoherency detection and more PPA activity during spatial coherency detection. Recognition and eye‐tracking data ruled out long‐ or short‐term memory confounds. Multivariate statistics demonstrated spatial coherency‐dependent functional connectivity for the HC, but not PPA, with greater HC connectivity to various brain regions including lateral occipital complex during spatial incoherency detection. We suggest the PPA is preferentially involved during the perception of spatially coherent scenes, whereas the HC binds distinct features to create coherent representations. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
ISSN:1050-9631
1098-1063
DOI:10.1002/hipo.22673