September 2024
Volume 24, Issue 10
Open Access
Vision Sciences Society Annual Meeting Abstract  |   September 2024
Thalamocortical pathways underlying unconscious action-related visual information- evidence from the neural representations of binocularly suppressed tool images
Author Affiliations & Notes
  • Zhiqing Deng
    Center for the Study of Applied Psychology, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, and the School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, 510631, China
  • Fuying Zhu
    Center for the Study of Applied Psychology, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, and the School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, 510631, China
  • Jie Gao
    Center for the Study of Applied Psychology, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, and the School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, 510631, China
  • Zhiqiang Chen
    State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
    School of Life Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
    Sino-Danish College, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
  • Peng Zhang
    State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
    School of Life Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
    Institute of Artificial Intelligence, Hefei Comprehensive National Science Center, Hefei 15 230026, China
  • Juan Chen
    Center for the Study of Applied Psychology, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, and the School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, 510631, China
    Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences (South China Normal University), Ministry of Education
  • Footnotes
    Acknowledgements  This research was supported by the Supported by two National Natural Science Foundation of China grants (31970981 and 31800908) and by the National Science and Technology Innovation 2030 Major Program (STI2030-Major Projects 2022ZD0204802 to JC).
Journal of Vision September 2024, Vol.24, 1423. doi:https://doi.org/10.1167/jov.24.10.1423
  • Views
  • Share
  • Tools
    • Alerts
      ×
      This feature is available to authenticated users only.
      Sign In or Create an Account ×
    • Get Citation

      Zhiqing Deng, Fuying Zhu, Jie Gao, Zhiqiang Chen, Peng Zhang, Juan Chen; Thalamocortical pathways underlying unconscious action-related visual information- evidence from the neural representations of binocularly suppressed tool images. Journal of Vision 2024;24(10):1423. https://doi.org/10.1167/jov.24.10.1423.

      Download citation file:


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

      ×
  • Supplements
Abstract

In exploring the integral role of human subcortical structures, including the thalamus, brainstem, and basal ganglia, our study delves into their contribution to unconscious high-level perceptual processing, notably focusing on visual categorization. While extensive behavioral and fMRI studies have suggested the significance of subcortical pathways for residual vision within blindsight, the specific involvement of the thalamus, superior colliculus, and basal ganglia in unconscious high-level perceptual processing remains elusive in healthy humans. Here, we employed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the representation of toolness (tools vs. non-tools) and shape (elongated vs. stubby) within subcortical structures while images were made invisible using continuous flash suppression (CFS). Both univariate analysis and multivoxel pattern analysis (MVPA) based on blood-oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signals revealed a significant toolness representation in the left thalamus, with the left ventral anterior thalamus (VA, motor-related) as the most important thalamic subregion contributing to the toolness representation under CFS. In the basal ganglia, the left striatum (STR) exhibited robust toolness representation in both univariate analysis and MVPA. Among cortical regions, only area 9a and anterior 10p (part of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, DLPFC) demonstrated significant toolness representation. Functional connectivity results indicated that elongated tools increased the connectivity between the bilateral VA in the thalamus and left 9a (DLPFC) and between the right VA and left STR in the basal ganglia, compared to elongated non-tools in CFS. Notably, dynamic causal modeling (DCM) results unveiled a thalamocortical pathway from the left VA in the thalamus to the left 9a (DLPFC) contributing to toolness representation when tool images are rendered invisible by CFS. These findings shed light on the role of the subcortical structures, particularly the thalamus and basal ganglia, and highlight a thalamocortical pathway in healthy humans engaged in unconscious high-level perceptual processing, especially unconscious visual categorization.

×
×

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.

×