This proposal, submitted under the auspices of the program supporting Small Grants for Pilot Research, seeks funds to develop, refine and validate analytic techniques for inferring the relative contributions of feedforward and feedback contributions to fMRI activations in multiple visual areas. Specifically, we will use nonlinear equations to model activations (blood oxygen-level dependent signals registered using functional magnetic resonance imaging) measured while human observers report fluctuations in visual perception associated with viewing binocular rivalry (i.e., the alternations in visual awareness between two dissimilar images viewed by the separate eyes). These analytic techniques have been described in the literature (Buchel & Friston, 1995) but have been rarely employed in studies of vision, despite their potential for significantly extending the range of conclusions drawn from brain imaging studies. Given the dramatic increase in the use of fMRI for the study of vision and its disorders, it is imperative to develop, refine and validate techniques that extend the range of problems that can be addressed using fMRI. The present proposal has this potential.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Eye Institute (NEI)
Type
Small Research Grants (R03)
Project #
5R03EY014437-02
Application #
6778167
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZEY1-VSN (01))
Program Officer
Oberdorfer, Michael
Project Start
2003-08-01
Project End
2006-07-31
Budget Start
2004-08-01
Budget End
2005-07-31
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
2004
Total Cost
$151,000
Indirect Cost
Name
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Department
Psychology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
004413456
City
Nashville
State
TN
Country
United States
Zip Code
37212
Knapen, Tomas; Brascamp, Jan; Pearson, Joel et al. (2011) The role of frontal and parietal brain areas in bistable perception. J Neurosci 31:10293-301
Thornton-Wells, Tricia A; Cannistraci, Christopher J; Anderson, Adam W et al. (2010) Auditory attraction: activation of visual cortex by music and sound in Williams syndrome. Am J Intellect Dev Disabil 115:172-89
Rogers, Baxter P; Katwal, Santosh B; Morgan, Victoria L et al. (2010) Functional MRI and multivariate autoregressive models. Magn Reson Imaging 28:1058-65
Rogers, Baxter P; Gore, John C (2008) Empirical comparison of sources of variation for FMRI connectivity analysis. PLoS One 3:e3708
Lee, Sang-Hun; Blake, Randolph; Heeger, David J (2007) Hierarchy of cortical responses underlying binocular rivalry. Nat Neurosci 10:1048-54
Kim, Chai-Youn; Blake, Randolph (2007) Brain activity accompanying perception of implied motion in abstract paintings. Spat Vis 20:545-60
Ikeda, Hanako; Blake, Randolph; Watanabe, Katsumi (2005) Eccentric perception of biological motion is unscalably poor. Vision Res 45:1935-43
Lee, Sang-Hun; Blake, Randolph; Heeger, David J (2005) Traveling waves of activity in primary visual cortex during binocular rivalry. Nat Neurosci 8:22-3
Grossman, Emily D; Blake, Randolph; Kim, Chai-Youn (2004) Learning to see biological motion: brain activity parallels behavior. J Cogn Neurosci 16:1669-79