PURPOSE: Attention priority maps are topographic representations that is utilized for attention selection and guidance of task-related behavior during visual processing. Previous studies have identified attention priority maps of simple artificial stimuli in multiple cortical and subcortical areas, while investigating neural correlates of priority maps of natural stimuli is complicated by the complexity of multi-dimensional stimulus information, the difficulty of behaviorally characterizing priority maps of natural stimuli and the possible influence of spatial structure of natural stimuli on priority maps.
METHODS: Here, we overcame these challenges by reconstructing the topographic representations of face stimuli from fMRI BOLD signals in early visual areas V1-V3 based on voxel-wise population receptive field models and behaviorally characterizing the priority maps as the first saccadic eye movement patterns when subjects performed an image matching task. We used face stimuli because the spatial structure of face components is consistent, which allows effective reconstruction of topographic representation and easy examination of the possible influence of image configuration on priority maps.
RESULTS: We found that the first saccadic eye movement patterns could be well predicted from the reconstructed topographic representations in early visual areas. Moreover, face inversion modulated the coupling between the first saccadic target pattern and the reconstructed representations in V2/3 but not in V1.
CONCLUSIONS: Our findings thus provide novel evidence for priority maps of natural stimuli in early visual areas and extend the traditional attention priority map theory by revealing another critical factor that affects priority maps in extrastriate cortex in addition to physical salience and task goal relevance, namely the configuration of stimulus image.