Brain regions of activation for naturally colored objects: an fMRI study

Abstract

Context contributes to accurate and efficient information processing, and shapes perception, thoughts and actions. Contextual information allows for context-driven predictions or expectations, along with predictive coding, which is a guiding principle of efficient information processing in the brain. To reveal the dynamics of the neural mechanisms underlying the processing of the association context during recognition of colored objects (i.e., association between color and object)., we carried out functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiments, in which subjects were asked to judge contextual validity for the association context. Here, naturally colored objects are valid-context stimuli, while unnaturally colored objects are invalid-context stimuli. We showed the activation maps (regions of activation) for the task of the judgment of contextual validity for the association context. By the dynamic causal modeling (DCM) analysis, we revealed the dynamic nature of the neural connectivities in the contextual information processing.