DETI Brain Mapping Technique Reveals Neural Code of Vision Handling With Time
Humans are inching closer to understanding exactly how the brain codes visual information. Scientists have now established a technique that maps time-varying brain responses to images to expose just how the brain processes visual information. Colgate University Neuroscience Teacher Bruce C. Hansen worked together with Michelle R. Greene (Bates College), and also David J. Field (Cornell University) to introduce dynamic electrode-to-image (DETI) mapping. (DETI brain mapping technique).
DETI is an analytical strategy that relies on the high temporal resolution of electroencephalography (EEG) to produce maps of visual features that are related to various neural signals with time. Observe a real-time example of neural responses mapped to an image in the video listed below.
The study “Dynamic Electrode-to-Image (DETI) mapping shows that the human brain’s spatiotemporal code of visual details” has been published in the journal PLOS Computational Biology.
How does the DETI brain mapping technique work?
” When viewing any setting, our brains code visual information across a large population of neurons in a way that enables a range of intelligent behaviors. However, the visual code used to steer behavior is not steady like a photo yet instead progresses with time and different populaces of neurons contributing to the code at different times. Our DETI mapping technique offers the first glimpse right into that time-varying code at every location in images,” said Hansen.
Current advances in voxel-wise encoding evaluations based on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) allowed compelling reconstructions of images based upon brain data. However, they can only reproduce a single snapshot in time because of fMRI’s limited temporal resolution. The DETI mapping procedure introduced by Hansen and associates is based upon EEG signals. This allows mapping of the neural code of images with millisecond precision.
To efficiently map the visual code to images with EEG data, Hansen and colleagues had to get over a variety of methodological obstacles. “The brain signals recorded by the EEG experience interference by the skull along with different quantities of cancellation as a result of the folding patterns of the brain.” Utilizing a biologically conceivable encoding model of the brain, Hansen and his group prevented those issues by measuring the correspondence between encoded pixels across multiple images and the resulting adjustments in the neural response.
“One manner to think about exactly how the DETI mapping procedure functions is by running an image through the brain and projecting the subsequent neural code back onto the image.” Since EEG can measure neural signals at various scalp locations, DETI mapping creates a multiplexed view of how different populations of neurons code image attributes at different locations in images gradually. Something that was once assumed impossible to do with EEG data.
What applications does the DETI brain mapping technique have?
The mapping data generated by the DETI procedure uses new and vital insights into just how the neural code of images evolve in time. One of the most astounding results reported by Hansen and associates is that the brain shows up to scan images to highlight various image areas with different neural populations at other points in time. “This a scanning procedure most likely helps in an early prioritization of the ground aircraft to support judgments for navigating, with a later emphasis concentrated on sports organization.”
These discoveries bring new and intriguing questions about how the progressing neural code notifies higher level cognitive procedures when individuals participate in different tasks. “We know that the code for visual information is scattered throughout a large population of neurons, but exactly how that code is distributed depends on the objectives of a given job. What this suggests is that the brain does not merely develop a mental picture based specifically on the environment, but instead creates a depiction that ideally matches the behavioral goals of the individual.” The excellent news is that DETI mapping makes it possible to discover the neural characteristics of task-based aesthetic codes and how those codes inevitably support task-based decision-making.
Read the original article on Scitech Daily.
Reference: “Dynamic Electrode-to-Image (DETI) mapping reveals the human brain’s spatiotemporal code of visual information” by Bruce C. Hansen, Michelle R. Greene and David J. Field, 27 September 2021, PLoS Computational Biology.
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009456
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