Separation Effect of Early Visual Cortex V1 Under Different Crowding Conditions A TMS Study

TL;DR

This study investigates how early visual cortex V1 contributes to visual crowding by applying TMS at different intensities, revealing that crowding effects can be modulated and separated by TMS stimulation, supporting V1's role in crowding.

Contribution

It demonstrates that TMS can differentiate high and low crowding conditions in V1, providing new insights into the neural mechanisms of visual crowding.

Findings

TMS intensity interacts with crowding conditions affecting perception.

Lower TMS intensities increase perceived crowding under high crowding.

Results support V1's involvement in the neural basis of crowding.

Abstract

The visual crowding makes it difficult to identify the patterns in peripheral vision, but the neural mechanism for this phenomenon is still unclear because of different opinions. In order to study the separation effect of V1 under different crowding conditions, single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation is applied within the right V1. The experimental design includes two factors: TMS intensity (10%, 65%, and 90% of the phosphene threshold) and crowding (high and low) conditions. The accuracy results show that there is a strong interaction between crowding condition and TMS condition. When the TMS stimulation intensity is lower than the phosphene threshold, more crowding will be perceived under the high crowding condition, and less crowding will be perceived under the low crowding condition. The above results conclude that the high and low crowding condition separate by TMS stimulation. The results support the assumption that the crowding is related to V1 and occurs in the visual coding phase.