Increasing interhemispheric connectivity between human visual motion areas uncovers asymmetric sensitivity to horizontal motion

• Published in: Current biology 2022-09, Vol.32 (18), p.4064-4070.e3
• Main Authors: Chiappini, Emilio, Sel, Alejandra, Hibbard, Paul B., Avenanti, Alessio, Romei, Vincenzo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: bistable motion; ccPAS; cortico-cortical paired associative stimulation; Hebbian-like plasticity; hemispheric specialization; horizontal motion; interhemispheric connectivity; spike-timing-dependent plasticity; transcranial magnetic stimulation; V5/MT
• ISSN: 0960-9822; 1879-0445
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2022.07.050

Our conscious perceptual experience relies on a hierarchical process involving integration of low-level sensory encoding and higher-order sensory selection.1 This hierarchical process may scale at different levels of brain functioning, including integration of information between the hemispheres.2–5 Here, we test this hypothesis for the perception of visual motion stimuli. Across 3 experiments, we manipulated the connectivity between the left and right visual motion complexes (V5/MT+) responsible for horizontal motion perception2,3 by means of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS).4,5 We found that enhancing the strength of connections from the left to the right V5/MT+, by inducing spike-timing-dependent plasticity6 in this pathway, increased sensitivity to horizontal motion. These changes were present immediately and lasted at least 90 min after intervention. Notably, little perceptual changes were observed when strengthening connections from the right to the left V5/MT+. Furthermore, we found that this asymmetric modulation was mirrored by an asymmetric perceptual bias in the direction of the horizontal motion. Overall, observers were biased toward leftward relative to rightward motion direction. Crucially, following the strengthening of the connections from right to left V5/MT+, this bias could be momentarily reversed. These results suggest that the projections connecting left and right V5/MT+ in the human visual cortex are asymmetrical, subtending a hierarchical role of hemispheric specialization7–10 favoring left-to-right hemisphere processing for integrating local sensory input into coherent global motion perception. •Stimulating interhemispheric V5 projections increases horizontal motion sensitivity•Stimulation is more effective for left-V5-to-right-V5 interhemispheric projections•This asymmetric V5-V5 modulation mirrors a perceptual leftward motion bias•V5-V5 connectivity modulation unravels its hierarchical organization Chiappini and Sel et al. show causal evidence that processing of visual horizontal motion integrates into a global percept across hemispheres. They reveal greater enhancement of horizontal motion following TMS strengthening of left-V5-to-right-V5 projections. Such asymmetry mirrors a perceptual leftward motion bias, amenable to exogenous modulation.