Neural Substrates of Dynamic Object Occlusion

Overview

Journal J Cogn Neurosci

Specialty Neurology

Date 2007 Jul 27

PMID 17651002

Citations 14

Authors

Sarah M Shuwairi

Clayton E Curtis

Scott P Johnson

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

In everyday environments, objects frequently go out of sight as they move and our view of them becomes obstructed by nearer objects, yet we perceive these objects as continuous and enduring entities. Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging with an attentive tracking paradigm to clarify the nature of perceptual and cognitive mechanisms subserving this ability to fill in the gaps in perception of dynamic object occlusion. Imaging data revealed distinct regions of cortex showing increased activity during periods of occlusion relative to full visibility. These regions may support active maintenance of a representation of the target's spatiotemporal properties ensuring that the object is perceived as a persisting entity when occluded. Our findings may shed light on the neural substrates involved in object tracking that give rise to the phenomenon of object permanence.

Citing Articles

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Seeing and extrapolating motion trajectories share common informative activation patterns in primary visual cortex.

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