Patterns of response to scrambled scenes reveal the importance of visual properties in the organization of scene-selective cortex

David Mark Watson; Tom Hartley; Timothy John Andrews

doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2017.04.011

Patterns of response to scrambled scenes reveal the importance of visual properties in the organization of scene-selective cortex

David Mark Watson, Tom Hartley, Timothy John Andrews

Psychology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Neuroimaging studies have found distinct patterns of neural response to different categories of scene in scene-selective regions of the human brain. However, it is not clear how information about scene category is represented in these regions. Images from different categories vary systematically in their visual properties as well as their semantic category. So, it is possible that patterns of neural response could reflect variation in visual properties. To address this question, we used fMRI to measure patterns of neural response to intact and scrambled scene categories. Although scrambling preserved many of their visual characteristics, perception of scene categories was severely impaired. Nevertheless, we found distinct patterns of response to different scene categories in the parahippocampal place area (PPA) and the occipital place area (OPA) for both intact and scrambled scenes. Moreover, intact and scrambled scenes produced highly similar patterns of response. Our finding that reliable and distinct patterns of response in scene-selective regions are still evident when categorical perception is impaired suggests that visual properties play an important role in the topographic organization of these regions.

Original language	English
Journal	Cortex
Early online date	21 Apr 2017
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2017.04.011
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 21 Apr 2017

Bibliographical note

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10.1016/j.cortex.2017.04.011

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© Elsevier B. V. 2017. This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy.
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Cite this

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title = "Patterns of response to scrambled scenes reveal the importance of visual properties in the organization of scene-selective cortex",

abstract = "Neuroimaging studies have found distinct patterns of neural response to different categories of scene in scene-selective regions of the human brain. However, it is not clear how information about scene category is represented in these regions. Images from different categories vary systematically in their visual properties as well as their semantic category. So, it is possible that patterns of neural response could reflect variation in visual properties. To address this question, we used fMRI to measure patterns of neural response to intact and scrambled scene categories. Although scrambling preserved many of their visual characteristics, perception of scene categories was severely impaired. Nevertheless, we found distinct patterns of response to different scene categories in the parahippocampal place area (PPA) and the occipital place area (OPA) for both intact and scrambled scenes. Moreover, intact and scrambled scenes produced highly similar patterns of response. Our finding that reliable and distinct patterns of response in scene-selective regions are still evident when categorical perception is impaired suggests that visual properties play an important role in the topographic organization of these regions.",

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