ABSTRACTS

Top-down modulation of early sensory cortex

M.Corbetta,

G.L.Shuiman, R.L.Buckner, F.M.Miezin,

S.E.Petersen

M.E.Raichle,

Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, USA

Introduction: Although several studies have reported blood flow increases in extrastriate cortex that were caused
by top-down processes, there is less evidence concerning cortex early in the visual hierarchy (areas 17 and 18).
Conversely, Haxby et al. (1) have reported blood flow decreases in primary auditory cortex during visual
processing. The present study reanalyzed nine previous studies involving visual stimuli to examine the
consistency of early sensory modulations.

Studies: All studies contained active conditions (in which subjects performed a discrimination on a visual
stimulus while maintaining fixation on a central cross) and passive conditions (in which the same stimulus was
presented but subjects were only instructed to maintain fixation). The studies spanned a broad range of paradigms
including visual search, successive same-different discrimination, shifting attention, cued-recall, language, and
imagery, and each study generally contained 2-4 different active tasks. The analysis of blood flow decreases in
auditory cortex was restricted to the five studies that did not involve a language component. A total of 132
subjects and 426 active minus passive scan pairs were studied. Eye movements were monitored in all studies.

Method: Measurements of cerebral blood flow had previously been made with a PETr VI tomograph, with a
FWHM of 17 mm, using O-15 labeled water as a tracer. Data from each study were analyzed with a generate-test
methodology, in which a set of candidate activations were determined from a generate set of scans, and then
replicated via a 1-sample t-test in a non-overlapping set of test scans. For each study, generate and test sets included
active minus passive scan pairs from all the active tasks within the study. For those activations that replicated,
ANOVAs were conducted to determine if the active minus passive activation at that location differed across these
active tasks.
Results: Candidate activations in or near the calcarine sulcus were found in the generate images for 8 of the 9
studies and these activations replicated in six studies. The studies that failed to yield early modulations generally
involved stimuli that produce poor sensory responses (e.g. stimuli that were very peripheral or involved a brief,
very small transient), suggesting that modulation strength may be related to the degree of sensory activation.
ANOVAs indicated that the replicated activations were task dependent in three studies. For example, modulation
was increased in scans that followed practice with the same word list, but only if the post-practice task involved
generating an appropriate verb for each word rather than reading each word.
A 'megaimage' that combined data across study yielded a small but consistent blood flow decrease in left
area 41/42 (coordinate = -57, -17, 12), 11 mm lateral to the decrease reported by Haxby et al.(1). Separate analyses
yielded significant blood flow decreases in two of five studies, but the locations of these activations were quite
dissimilar (vector distance > 2 cm).

Conclusions: Top-down modulation of areas early in the visual hierarchy is a reliable phenomenon. The task
dependency of this modulation in several cases suggests that some of the underlying mechanisms are selective,
although non-selective mechanisms such as arousal may also be involved. Large blood flow decreases in primary
auditory cortex do not appear to be routinely generated by processing a visual stimulus, but reliable decreases do
occur under certain conditions.
1. Haxby, J., Horwitz, B., Ungerleider, L., Maisog. J. Pietrini, P. and Grady, C. J.Neurosci, 1994, 14:6336-6353.

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