Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1993 Dec 1;90(23):10927–10931. doi: 10.1073/pnas.90.23.10927

Different perceptual tasks performed with the same visual stimulus attribute activate different regions of the human brain: a positron emission tomography study.

P Dupont 1, G A Orban 1, R Vogels 1, G Bormans 1, J Nuyts 1, C Schiepers 1, M De Roo 1, L Mortelmans 1
PMCID: PMC47894  PMID: 8248194

Abstract

To investigate the processing of visual form in human cerebral cortex, we used the PET (positron emission tomography) activation technique to compare the human brain regions that are involved in a visual detection task and two orientation discrimination tasks: the temporal same-different (TSD) task, which includes a short-term memory component, and the identification (ID) task, which is without this component. As a control task we used passive viewing. Stimuli were identical in all four tasks. Subtraction of passive viewing from detection showed that the detection task activates early visual cortical regions (areas 17/18) as well as several motor brain regions, while decreasing activity in several higher order frontal, temporal, and parietal regions. Comparing the ID task to the detection task revealed no further visual cortical activation, while comparison of the TSD task to the detection task revealed an activation of several right visual cortical regions, one of which remained significant after the subtraction of ID from TSD (right area 19). These experiments demonstrate the task dependence of visual processing, even for very closely related tasks, and the localization of the temporal comparison component involved in orientation discrimination in human area 19.

Full text

PDF
10927

Images in this article

10929Fig. 2
on p.10929
10930Fig. 3
on p.10930
10930Fig. 4
on p.10930

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Alexander G. E., Crutcher M. D. Preparation for movement: neural representations of intended direction in three motor areas of the monkey. J Neurophysiol. 1990 Jul;64(1):133–150. doi: 10.1152/jn.1990.64.1.133. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Alexander G. E., DeLong M. R., Strick P. L. Parallel organization of functionally segregated circuits linking basal ganglia and cortex. Annu Rev Neurosci. 1986;9:357–381. doi: 10.1146/annurev.ne.09.030186.002041. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Apicella P., Scarnati E., Ljungberg T., Schultz W. Neuronal activity in monkey striatum related to the expectation of predictable environmental events. J Neurophysiol. 1992 Sep;68(3):945–960. doi: 10.1152/jn.1992.68.3.945. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Benton A., Hannay H. J., Varney N. R. Visual perception of line direction in patients with unilateral brain disease. Neurology. 1975 Oct;25(10):907–910. doi: 10.1212/wnl.25.10.907. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Colebatch J. G., Deiber M. P., Passingham R. E., Friston K. J., Frackowiak R. S. Regional cerebral blood flow during voluntary arm and hand movements in human subjects. J Neurophysiol. 1991 Jun;65(6):1392–1401. doi: 10.1152/jn.1991.65.6.1392. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Corbetta M., Miezin F. M., Dobmeyer S., Shulman G. L., Petersen S. E. Selective and divided attention during visual discriminations of shape, color, and speed: functional anatomy by positron emission tomography. J Neurosci. 1991 Aug;11(8):2383–2402. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.11-08-02383.1991. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Crutcher M. D., Alexander G. E. Movement-related neuronal activity selectively coding either direction or muscle pattern in three motor areas of the monkey. J Neurophysiol. 1990 Jul;64(1):151–163. doi: 10.1152/jn.1990.64.1.151. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. DeYoe E. A., Van Essen D. C. Concurrent processing streams in monkey visual cortex. Trends Neurosci. 1988 May;11(5):219–226. doi: 10.1016/0166-2236(88)90130-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Démonet J. F., Chollet F., Ramsay S., Cardebat D., Nespoulous J. L., Wise R., Rascol A., Frackowiak R. The anatomy of phonological and semantic processing in normal subjects. Brain. 1992 Dec;115(Pt 6):1753–1768. doi: 10.1093/brain/115.6.1753. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Fox P. T., Mintun M. A., Raichle M. E., Miezin F. M., Allman J. M., Van Essen D. C. Mapping human visual cortex with positron emission tomography. 1986 Oct 30-Nov 5Nature. 323(6091):806–809. doi: 10.1038/323806a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Friston K. J., Frith C. D., Liddle P. F., Dolan R. J., Lammertsma A. A., Frackowiak R. S. The relationship between global and local changes in PET scans. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 1990 Jul;10(4):458–466. doi: 10.1038/jcbfm.1990.88. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Friston K. J., Frith C. D., Liddle P. F., Frackowiak R. S. Comparing functional (PET) images: the assessment of significant change. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 1991 Jul;11(4):690–699. doi: 10.1038/jcbfm.1991.122. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Glickstein M., May J. G., 3rd, Mercier B. E. Corticopontine projection in the macaque: the distribution of labelled cortical cells after large injections of horseradish peroxidase in the pontine nuclei. J Comp Neurol. 1985 May 15;235(3):343–359. doi: 10.1002/cne.902350306. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. HUBEL D. H., WIESEL T. N. Receptive fields, binocular interaction and functional architecture in the cat's visual cortex. J Physiol. 1962 Jan;160:106–154. doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.1962.sp006837. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Haxby J. V., Grady C. L., Horwitz B., Ungerleider L. G., Mishkin M., Carson R. E., Herscovitch P., Schapiro M. B., Rapoport S. I. Dissociation of object and spatial visual processing pathways in human extrastriate cortex. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1991 Mar 1;88(5):1621–1625. doi: 10.1073/pnas.88.5.1621. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Howard D., Patterson K., Wise R., Brown W. D., Friston K., Weiller C., Frackowiak R. The cortical localization of the lexicons. Positron emission tomography evidence. Brain. 1992 Dec;115(Pt 6):1769–1782. doi: 10.1093/brain/115.6.1769. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Hubel D. H., Wiesel T. N. Receptive fields and functional architecture of monkey striate cortex. J Physiol. 1968 Mar;195(1):215–243. doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.1968.sp008455. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Kimura M., Aosaki T., Hu Y., Ishida A., Watanabe K. Activity of primate putamen neurons is selective to the mode of voluntary movement: visually guided, self-initiated or memory-guided. Exp Brain Res. 1992;89(3):473–477. doi: 10.1007/BF00229870. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Milner A. D., Perrett D. I., Johnston R. S., Benson P. J., Jordan T. R., Heeley D. W., Bettucci D., Mortara F., Mutani R., Terazzi E. Perception and action in 'visual form agnosia'. Brain. 1991 Feb;114(Pt 1B):405–428. doi: 10.1093/brain/114.1.405. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Milner B. Some cognitive effects of frontal-lobe lesions in man. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 1982 Jun 25;298(1089):211–226. doi: 10.1098/rstb.1982.0083. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Orban G. A., Vandenbussche E., Vogels R. Human orientation discrimination tested with long stimuli. Vision Res. 1984;24(2):121–128. doi: 10.1016/0042-6989(84)90097-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Pardo J. V., Pardo P. J., Janer K. W., Raichle M. E. The anterior cingulate cortex mediates processing selection in the Stroop attentional conflict paradigm. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1990 Jan;87(1):256–259. doi: 10.1073/pnas.87.1.256. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Petersen S. E., Fox P. T., Posner M. I., Mintun M., Raichle M. E. Positron emission tomographic studies of the cortical anatomy of single-word processing. Nature. 1988 Feb 18;331(6157):585–589. doi: 10.1038/331585a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Saint-Cyr J. A., Ungerleider L. G., Desimone R. Organization of visual cortical inputs to the striatum and subsequent outputs to the pallido-nigral complex in the monkey. J Comp Neurol. 1990 Aug 8;298(2):129–156. doi: 10.1002/cne.902980202. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Sergent J., Ohta S., MacDonald B. Functional neuroanatomy of face and object processing. A positron emission tomography study. Brain. 1992 Feb;115(Pt 1):15–36. doi: 10.1093/brain/115.1.15. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. Spitzer H., Desimone R., Moran J. Increased attention enhances both behavioral and neuronal performance. Science. 1988 Apr 15;240(4850):338–340. doi: 10.1126/science.3353728. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  27. Van Essen D. C., Anderson C. H., Felleman D. J. Information processing in the primate visual system: an integrated systems perspective. Science. 1992 Jan 24;255(5043):419–423. doi: 10.1126/science.1734518. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  28. Vogels R., Orban G. A. Decision processes in visual discrimination of line orientation. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform. 1986 May;12(2):115–132. doi: 10.1037//0096-1523.12.2.115. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  29. Warrington E. K., Rabin P. Perceptual matching in patients with cerebral lesions. Neuropsychologia. 1970 Nov;8(4):475–487. doi: 10.1016/0028-3932(70)90043-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  30. Watson J. D., Myers R., Frackowiak R. S., Hajnal J. V., Woods R. P., Mazziotta J. C., Shipp S., Zeki S. Area V5 of the human brain: evidence from a combined study using positron emission tomography and magnetic resonance imaging. Cereb Cortex. 1993 Mar-Apr;3(2):79–94. doi: 10.1093/cercor/3.2.79. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  31. Zeki S. M. Functional specialisation in the visual cortex of the rhesus monkey. Nature. 1978 Aug 3;274(5670):423–428. doi: 10.1038/274423a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  32. Zeki S., Shipp S. The functional logic of cortical connections. Nature. 1988 Sep 22;335(6188):311–317. doi: 10.1038/335311a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  33. Zeki S., Watson J. D., Lueck C. J., Friston K. J., Kennard C., Frackowiak R. S. A direct demonstration of functional specialization in human visual cortex. J Neurosci. 1991 Mar;11(3):641–649. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.11-03-00641.1991. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America are provided here courtesy of National Academy of Sciences

RESOURCES