The inter-subject variability of ventral visual cortex
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- The human ventral visual stream is a processing stream in the human brain that is involved in visual perception and recognition. This stream contains a multitude of brain regions spanning the occipital lobe and the ventral aspect of the temporal lobe. An unanswered question is: How consistent are functional and microanatomical characteristics of the ventral visual stream across individuals? In study 1, I quantified if and how cytoarchitectonic areas, defined as areas that vary significantly in their cell density across the 6-layered cortical ribbon, of the ventral stream are linked to macroanatomical landmarks and if they are consistent across people. In study 2, I quantified the degree to which functional regions in ventral temporal cortex (VTC) and lateral occipito-temporal cortex (LOTC) are consistent across individuals. In study 3 I tested how responses in functional re- gions processing faces and bodies in VTC relate to behavioral judgements of ambiguous images and to what degree this relationship is consistent across individuals. Results of studies 1 -- 3 revealed strik- ingly high consistency of functional regions and cytoarchitectonic areas relative to macronanatomical landmarks and across people, and a consistent relationship of responses in face- and body-selective regions to behavioral judgements. These findings led me to ask in study 4: what principles drive this organization? Thus, in study 4, I investigated the role of experience in shaping the functional layout of the ventral stream by studying the functional organization of VTC in congenital blind partici- pants. I found that without visual input, the functional organization of VTC is substantially more heterogeneous in congenitally blind than sighted participants. This discovery suggests that common experience in sighted people contributes to their common functional organization of VTC. Together, results of these studies suggest that both the function and cytoarchitectonic organization of VTC is much more consistent across individuals that previously thought, and that visual experience plays an important role in shaping its functional organization. These data provide an important foundation for future studies that investigate both innate and experience-related organizational principles of the human ventral stream
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2020; ©2020 |
| Publication date | 2020; 2020 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Rosenke, Mona |
|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Grill-Spector, Kalanit |
| Thesis advisor | Grill-Spector, Kalanit |
| Thesis advisor | Norcia, Anthony Matthew |
| Thesis advisor | Yamins, Daniel |
| Degree committee member | Norcia, Anthony Matthew |
| Degree committee member | Yamins, Daniel |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Psychology. |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Mona Rosenke |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Psychology |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2020 |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2020 by Mona Rosenke
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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