Gravity influences top-down signals in visual processing

PLoS One. 2014 Jan 6;9(1):e82371. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0082371. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

Visual perception is not only based on incoming visual signals but also on information about a multimodal reference frame that incorporates vestibulo-proprioceptive input and motor signals. In addition, top-down modulation of visual processing has previously been demonstrated during cognitive operations including selective attention and working memory tasks. In the absence of a stable gravitational reference, the updating of salient stimuli becomes crucial for successful visuo-spatial behavior by humans in weightlessness. Here we found that visually-evoked potentials triggered by the image of a tunnel just prior to an impending 3D movement in a virtual navigation task were altered in weightlessness aboard the International Space Station, while those evoked by a classical 2D-checkerboard were not. Specifically, the analysis of event-related spectral perturbations and inter-trial phase coherency of these EEG signals recorded in the frontal and occipital areas showed that phase-locking of theta-alpha oscillations was suppressed in weightlessness, but only for the 3D tunnel image. Moreover, analysis of the phase of the coherency demonstrated the existence on Earth of a directional flux in the EEG signals from the frontal to the occipital areas mediating a top-down modulation during the presentation of the image of the 3D tunnel. In weightlessness, this fronto-occipital, top-down control was transformed into a diverging flux from the central areas toward the frontal and occipital areas. These results demonstrate that gravity-related sensory inputs modulate primary visual areas depending on the affordances of the visual scene.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Brain / physiology
  • Brain Waves
  • Electroencephalography
  • Evoked Potentials, Visual
  • Gravitation*
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Photic Stimulation
  • Visual Perception / physiology*

Grants and funding

This work was funded by the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office, the European Space Agency, (AO-2004,118), the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research (FNRS), the research funds of the Université Libre de Bruxelles and of the Université de Mons (Belgium) and the Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.