en
Scientific article
Open access
English

Emotional learning promotes perceptual predictions by remodeling stimulus representation in visual cortex

Published inScientific Reports, vol. 9, no. 1, 16867
Publication date2019
Abstract

Emotions exert powerful effects on perception and memory, notably by modulating activity in sensory cortices so as to capture attention. Here, we examine whether emotional significance acquired by a visual stimulus can also change its cortical representation by linking neuronal populations coding for different memorized versions of the same stimulus, a mechanism that would facilitate recognition across different appearances. Using fMRI, we show that after pairing a given face with threat through conditioning, viewing this face activates the representation of another viewpoint of the same person, which itself was never conditioned, leading to robust repetition-priming across viewpoints in the ventral visual stream (including medial fusiform, lateral occipital, and anterior temporal cortex). We also observed a functional-anatomical segregation for coding view-invariant and view-specific identity information. These results indicate emotional signals may induce plasticity of stimulus representations in visual cortex, serving to generate new sensory predictions about different appearances of threat-associated stimuli.

Funding
  • Swiss National Science Foundation - NCCR Affective Sciences: Emotion in Individual Behavior and Social Processes (phase I)
  • European Commission - Brain & BehaviouR InterDisciplinary rEsearch [267171]
Citation (ISO format)
MEAUX, Emilie, STERPENICH, Virginie, VUILLEUMIER, Patrik. Emotional learning promotes perceptual predictions by remodeling stimulus representation in visual cortex. In: Scientific Reports, 2019, vol. 9, n° 1, p. 16867. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-52615-6
Main files (1)
Article (Published version)
Secondary files (1)
Identifiers
ISSN of the journal2045-2322
340views
138downloads

Technical informations

Creation11/29/2019 4:00:00 PM
First validation11/29/2019 4:00:00 PM
Update time03/15/2023 6:30:46 PM
Status update03/15/2023 6:30:45 PM
Last indexation02/12/2024 11:45:29 AM
All rights reserved by Archive ouverte UNIGE and the University of GenevaunigeBlack