Journal
JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE
Volume 28, Issue 24, Pages 6202-6210Publisher
SOC NEUROSCIENCE
DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1233-08.2008
Keywords
visual detection; primary visual cortex; classical conditioning; emotion; vision; fMRI
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Funding
- NIMH NIH HHS [R01 MH071589, R01 MH071589-05, 1R01 MH071589] Funding Source: Medline
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The affective significance of a visual item is thought to lead to enhanced visual processing. However, the precise link between enhanced visual perception of emotion-laden items and increased visual responses remains poorly understood. To investigate this link, we acquired functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data while participants performed a challenging visual detection task. Grating stimuli were physically identical and differed only as a function of their previous exposure history; CS+ stimuli were initially paired with shock, whereas CS-stimuli were not. Behaviorally, subjects were both faster and more accurate during CS+ relative to CS+ target detection. These behavioral results were paralleled by increases in fMRI responses across early, retinotopically organized visual cortex, which was mapped in a separate fMRI session. Logistic regression analyses revealed that trial-by-trial fluctuations in fMRI responses were closely linked to trial type, such that fMRI signal strength reliably predicted the probability of a hit trial across retinotopically organized visual cortex, including area V1. For instance, during the CS+ condition, a 0.5% signal change increased the probability of a hit from chance to 67.3-73.5% in V1-V4 (the highest increase was observed in area V1). Furthermore, across participants, differential fMRI responses to hits versus correct rejects were correlated with behavioral performance. Our findings provide a close link between increased activation in early visual cortex and improved behavioral performance as a function of the affective significance of an item.
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