 |
| Research article summary (published 16 Jul 2003): |
Endogenous context for visual processing of human faces and other objects.
Full Abstract
The human ability to quickly recognise faces and objects is an important skill. This skill may be facilitated by the prior existence of context-setting functional brain states. MEG was used to test the hypothesis that such states may be defined neurophysiologically. One type of state was identified by evaluating deterministic features in the dynamics of pre-stimulus brain activity in 10 individuals engaging in an object categorisation task. These states followed a statistical gamma-distribution similar to that seen in models of percept duration of competing stimuli. Both an early (42 ms) and a late (440 ms) response were only seen for face stimuli that were presented during states in which the MEG data displayed low determinism. A second type of state was identified by evaluating amplitudes of pre-stimulus brain activity. Between 140 and 150 ms, activity was highest for face as well as non-face stimuli presented during a low amplitude state. These findings suggest that detectable states may provide an endogenous context for object processing, independently of experimental parameters.
Learn Faster Today Improve your study skills
Author information
Author/s: Braeutigam, Sven (S); Swithenby, Stephen J (SJ);
Affiliation: The Open University, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, UK. s.braeutigam@open.ac.uk
Journal and publication information
Publication Type: Comparative Study; Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Journal: Neuroreport (Neuroreport), published in England. (Language: eng)
Reference: 2003-Jul; vol 14 (issue 10) : pp 1385-9
Dates: Created 2003/07/23; Completed 2003/09/26; Revised 2006/11/15;
PMID: 12876479, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)
Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.
External Links for this article (including full text providers, if available):
Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.
This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.
MeSH headings (categories)
This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.
|
|
Related articles
This article has not been indexed for related articles as yet, however you can still use the live related article search links below.
See a large map of 100+ related articles.