Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 106, Issue 13, Pages 5389-5393Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0804998106
Keywords
fMRI; human visual cortex; visual perception
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Funding
- National Institutes of Health [NS045053, EY005911, S10 RR19186]
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We studied whether detectable percepts could be produced by electrical stimulation of intracranial electrodes placed over human visual areas identified with fMRI. identification of areas was confirmed by recording local-field potentials from the electrode, such as face-selective electrical responses from electrodes over the fusiform face area (FFA). The probability of detecting electrical stimulation of a visual area varied with the position of the area in the visual cortical hierarchy. Stimulation of early visual areas including V1, V2, and V3 was almost always detected, whereas stimulation of late visual areas such as FFA was rarely detected. When percepts were elicited from late areas, subjects reported that they were simple shapes and colors, similar to the descriptions of percepts from early areas. There were no reports of elaborate percepts, such as faces, even in areas like FFA, where neurons have complex response properties. For sites eliciting percepts, the detection threshold was determined by varying the stimulation current as subjects performed a forced-choice detection task. Current thresholds were similar for late and early areas. The similarity between both percept quality and threshold across early and late areas suggests the presence of functional microcircuits that link electrical stimulation with perception.
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