Spontaneous local variations in ongoing neural activity bias perceptual decisions

Neural variability in responding to identical repeated stimuli has been related to trial-by-trial fluctuations in ongoing activity, yet the neural and perceptual consequences of these fluctuations remain poorly understood. Using functional neuroimaging, we recorded brain activity in subjects who rep...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 2008-08, Vol.105 (31), p.10984-10989
Main Authors: Hesselmann, Guido, Kell, Christian A, Eger, Evelyn, Kleinschmidt, Andreas
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Behavioral neuroscience
Biological Sciences
Brain
Brain - metabolism
Brain - physiology
Discrimination (Psychology) - physiology
Evoked Potentials, Visual
Experimentation
Face
Face perception
Female
Fluctuations
Humans
Imaging
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Mental stimulation
Neurology
Optical Illusions - physiology
Pattern Recognition, Visual - physiology
Perception
Perceptions
Photic Stimulation
Scientific imaging
Time Factors
Vases
Visual perception
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Summary:Neural variability in responding to identical repeated stimuli has been related to trial-by-trial fluctuations in ongoing activity, yet the neural and perceptual consequences of these fluctuations remain poorly understood. Using functional neuroimaging, we recorded brain activity in subjects who reported perceptual decisions on an ambiguous figure, Rubin's vase-faces picture, which was briefly presented at variable intervals of >=20 s. Prestimulus activity in the fusiform face area, a cortical region preferentially responding to faces, was higher when subjects subsequently perceived faces instead of the vase. This finding suggests that endogenous variations in prestimulus neuronal activity biased subsequent perceptual inference. Furnishing evidence that evoked sensory responses, we then went on to show that the pre- and poststimulus activity interact in a nonlinear way and the ensuing perceptual decisions depend upon the prestimulus context in which they occur.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.0712043105