Work

Human brain activity during spontaneously reversing perception of ambiguous figures

Year: 1998

Type: article

Abstract: Looking at ambiguous figures results in rivalry with spontaneous alternation between two percepts. Using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging, we localized transient human brain activity changes during perceptual reversals. Activation occurred in ventral occipital and intraparietal higher-order visual areas, deactivation in primary visual cortex and the pulvinar. Thus, without any physical stimulus changes, salient perceptual flips briefly engage widely separated specialized cortical areas, but are also associated with intermittent activity breakdown in structures putatively maintaining perceptual stability. Together, the dynamics of integrative perceptual experience are reflected in rapid spatially differentiated activity modulation within a cooperative set of neural structures.

Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences

DOI: 10.1098/rspb.1998.0594

Authors: A. Kleinschmidt, C. Büchel, S. Zeki, R. S. J. Frackowiak

Institutions: National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology

Language: English

Topic: Visual perception and processing mechanisms

Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience

Field: Neuroscience

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funder: Wellcome Trust

OpenAlex ID: W2154301356

FWCI: 5.429

Cites: 40

Cited by: 325

Related to: 10