August 2016
Volume 16, Issue 12
Open Access
Vision Sciences Society Annual Meeting Abstract  |   September 2016
Perceptual learning of contrast detection strengthens the response of the magnocellular layers of the human LGN
Author Affiliations
  • Qinlin Yu
    Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences
  • Peng Zhang
    State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
  • Fang Fang
    Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences
Journal of Vision September 2016, Vol.16, 553. doi:https://doi.org/10.1167/16.12.553
  • Views
  • Share
  • Tools
    • Alerts
      ×
      This feature is available to authenticated users only.
      Sign In or Create an Account ×
    • Get Citation

      Qinlin Yu, Peng Zhang, Fang Fang; Perceptual learning of contrast detection strengthens the response of the magnocellular layers of the human LGN. Journal of Vision 2016;16(12):553. https://doi.org/10.1167/16.12.553.

      Download citation file:


      © ARVO (1962-2015); The Authors (2016-present)

      ×
  • Supplements
Abstract

In this study, we carried out psychophysical and fMRI experiments to investigate whether perceptual learning of contrast detection can modify the response properties of the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN). Nineteen subjects underwent thirty daily training sessions to detect the presence of a checkerboard with one eye. The checkerboard was presented briefly at a near-threshold contrast in one visual hemifield. A daily session consisted of 30 QUEST staircases of 40 trials. Before and after training, we measured subjects' contrast detection thresholds and contrast response functions of BOLD signal. Their behavioral improvement was specific to the trained eye and the trained hemifield. During scanning, flickering checkerboards at three contrast levels (6%, 24%, or 96%) were presented in either the left or the right visual hemifield. Subjects viewed the stimuli with one eye. Meanwhile, they needed to detect the color change of the central fixation point. Training led to an eye- and hemifiled-specific response increase of the LGN to the checkerboard, only at the low contrast level (6%). There was no learning-induced change in V1, V2, and V3. Furthermore, we used the method proposed by Zhang et al. (2015) to separate the Parvocellular (P) and Magnocellular (M) layers of the LGN. We found that, following training, only the response of the M layers increased to the low contrast checkerboard. The response increase in the M layers significantly correlated with the behavioral improvement. Our study demonstrated that even in the absence of top-down modulation (e.g. attention), perceptual learning of contrast detection could modify the functional properties of the M layers of LGN by increasing their response gain to low-contrast stimuli.

Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2016

×
×

This PDF is available to Subscribers Only

Sign in or purchase a subscription to access this content. ×

You must be signed into an individual account to use this feature.

×