Optical stimulation of inferior temporal cortex induces object-specific visual distortions.

Azadi, Reza; Bohn, Simon; Lopez, Emily; Lafer-Sousa, Rosa; Wang, Karen; Eldridge, Mark; Afraz, Arash

doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-1331186/v3

Cited by 2 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 23 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…It has been previously shown that monkeys can easily learn this simple task (14,15), which remained the sole task expected from the animals throughout the study. Our earlier results suggest that the animals perform this task (in the IT cortex) using the visual events induced by cortical stimulation (6). The animals initiated each trial by holding fixation on a central target for 500ms.…”

Section: Perceptography: Concept and Methodologymentioning

confidence: 95%

“…The Opto-Array allows safe, rapidly reversible, and high-throughput optical stimulation of ∼1mm3 subregions of the targeted cortex, although it doesn’t allow neural recordings. Technical details about the Opto-Array and relevant surgical protocols can be found in our earlier reports ( 2, 6 ).…”

Section: Perceptography: Concept and Methodologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…IT cortex is known for its strong object selectivity at the single cell (17,18) as well as ~1mm 3 tissue scale (19)(20)(21). While the current OptoArray technology doesn't allow neural recording, rendering us blind with respect to the object selectivity profile of the stimulated neurons, it is reasonable to assume heterogeneity of selectivity at the spatial scale perturbed by a single LED (6,19) in that the perturbed neural population conserves visual selectivity for "a" part of the shape space. Assuming this, one might expect that stimulation of a given site in IT cortex induces the perception of the preferred features of the targeted neurons independent of what is on the screen.…”

Section: Fig-5mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Artificial stimulation of neurons in high-level visual cortical areas induces complex hallucinatory visual percepts [3][4][5][6] . Scientific characterization of these visual percepts poses a serious methodological challenge due to their complex and subjective nature, yet it has inspired a multigenerational effort in systems neuroscience as it bridges the mechanistic gap between patterns of neuronal activity in the brain and elements of visual perception 1,7,8 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We refer to these two systems as DaVinci and Ahab (see Fig 1 .c). DaVinci is our image illustrator engine; it is a structure powered by BigGAN trained on the ImageNet dataset 6,16 . DaVinci was tasked with creating multiple random image mutations for each seed image (see Methods).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

The causal role of the inferior temporal cortex in visual perception

Shahbazi

Pernuš

et al. 2022

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Artificial perturbation of local neural activity in the high-level visual cortex alters visual perception. Quantitative characterization of these perceptual alterations holds the key to the development of a mechanistic theory of visual perception1. Historically, though, the complexity of these perceptual alterations, as well as their subjective nature, has rendered them difficult to quantify. Here, we trained macaque monkeys to detect and report brief optogenetic impulses delivered to their inferior temporal cortex, the high-level visual area associated with object recognition, via an implanted LED array2. We assumed that the animals perform this task by detecting the stimulation-induced alterations of the contents of their vision. We required the animals to fixate on a set of images during the task and utilized a machine-learning structure aiming at physically perturbing the viewed images in order to trick the animals into thinking they were being stimulated. In a high-throughput iterative process of behavioral data collection, we developed highly specific perturbed images,perceptograms, looking at which would trick the animals into feeling cortically stimulated. Perceptograms provide parametric and pictorial evidence of the visual hallucinations induced by cortical stimulation. Objective characterization of stimulation-induced perceptual events, besides its theoretical value, opens the door to making better visual prosthetic devices as well as a deeper understanding of visual hallucinations in mental disorders.

show abstract

Section: Perceptography: Concept and Methodologymentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Perceptography: Concept and Methodologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Fig-5mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

The causal role of the inferior temporal cortex in visual perception

Shahbazi

Pernuš

et al. 2022

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Perceptography unveils the causal contribution of inferior temporal cortex to visual perception

Shahbazi,

Ma,

Pernuš

et al. 2024

Nat Commun

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Neurons in the inferotemporal (IT) cortex respond selectively to complex visual features, implying their role in object perception. However, perception is subjective and cannot be read out from neural responses; thus, bridging the causal gap between neural activity and perception demands independent characterization of perception. Historically, though, the complexity of the perceptual alterations induced by artificial stimulation of IT cortex has rendered them impossible to quantify. To address this old problem, we tasked male macaque monkeys to detect and report optical impulses delivered to their IT cortex. Combining machine learning with high-throughput behavioral optogenetics, we generated complex and highly specific images that were hard for the animal to distinguish from the state of being cortically stimulated. These images, named “perceptograms” for the first time, reveal and depict the contents of the complex hallucinatory percepts induced by local neural perturbation in IT cortex. Furthermore, we found that the nature and magnitude of these hallucinations highly depend on concurrent visual input, stimulation location, and intensity. Objective characterization of stimulation-induced perceptual events opens the door to developing a mechanistic theory of visual perception. Further, it enables us to make better visual prosthetic devices and gain a greater understanding of visual hallucinations in mental disorders.

show abstract

Optical stimulation of inferior temporal cortex induces object-specific visual distortions.

Cited by 2 publications

References 23 publications

The causal role of the inferior temporal cortex in visual perception

The causal role of the inferior temporal cortex in visual perception

Perceptography unveils the causal contribution of inferior temporal cortex to visual perception

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About