Biology subjects

Kamps, F. S.

Publications and source records attributed to Kamps, F. S..

5 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

The cortical scene processing network emerges in infancy, prior to independent navigation experience

Sighted people rely on vision to recognize and navigate the local environment. By adulthood, human cortex contains at least three regions that respond selectively to visual scene information, but it remains unknown when or how these regions develop. One hypothesis is that scene selectivity emerges gradually in regions that initially prefer certain low-level visual features (e.g., peripheral visual input, high spatial frequencies, rectilinearity), and then exposure to the visual statistics of natural scenes drives the emergence of scene selective responses. However, both aspects of this hypothesis remain to be tested: how early scene selectivity first arises in human development, and whether it is driven by passive exposure to visual statistics. We therefore collected functional magnetic resonance imaging data from awake 2-9-month-old infants while they watched videos of real-world scenes with ego-motion, as well as faces, objects, and scrambled videos. We found stronger responses to scenes than control conditions in the location of all three scene regions. Scene-selective responses could not be explained by low-level visual properties of the stimuli, and were found in infants as young as 2-5 months old, with no evidence of age-related change. We also measured infants experience independently navigating (e.g., crawling), which was not necessary for the development of scene-selectivity. In sum, cortical regions are scene-selective in human infants prior to independent navigation, and after only limited exposure to visual scene statistics. Significance statementDespite extensive work on the functional organization of scene processing in the human adult visual cortex, little is known about the developmental origins of category selectivity for visual scenes. Here we used fMRI in awake human infants to discover that all three regions of the known visual scene processing system are present within the first few months of life - the youngest age yet detected. Scene-selective cortex therefore develops after only a few months of limited visual exposure, and prior to active experience using visual scene information to plan and guide independent navigation (e.g., by crawling). These findings provide a fundamental constraint on theories of how scene selectivity develops in high-level visual cortex.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2025

Data retention in awake infant fMRI: Lessons from more than 750 scanning sessions

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in awake infants has the potential to reveal how the early developing brain gives rise to cognition and behavior. However, awake infant fMRI poses significant methodological challenges that have hampered wider adoption. The present work takes stock after the collection of a substantial amount of awake infant fMRI data across multiple studies from two labs at different institutions. These data were leveraged to glean insights on participant recruitment, experimental design, and data acquisition that could be useful to consider for future studies. Across 766 fMRI sessions with awake infants aged 1-36 months, the authors explored the factors that influenced how much usable data were obtained per session. The age of an infant predicted whether they would successfully enter the scanner (younger more likely) and, if they did enter, the number of minutes of functional data collected (linear, younger more) and retained after preprocessing with lab-specific protocols or harmonized motion exclusion thresholds (quadratic, 12-24 months more than younger and older). The amount of functional data retained was also influenced by assigned sex (female more), experimental paradigm (movies better than blocks and events), and stimulus content (social better than abstract). There were many differences in the research approach between labs making head-to-head comparisons difficult, but Yale was more likely to get infants into the scanner, MIT collected more data from infants who entered, and the amount of data retained after preprocessing did not differ statistically between labs (9 minutes). In addition, the authors assessed the value of attempting to collect multiple experiments per session, an approach that yielded more than one usable experiment averaging across all sessions. Although any given scan is unpredictable, these findings support the feasibility of awake infant fMRI and suggest practices to optimize future research.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2024

Representation of navigational affordances and ego-motion in the occipital place area

Humans effortlessly use vision to plan and guide navigation through the local environment, or "scene". A network of three cortical regions responds selectively to visual scene information, including the occipital (OPA), parahippocampal (PPA), and medial place areas (MPA) - but how this network supports visually-guided navigation is unclear. Recent evidence suggests that one region in particular, the OPA, supports visual representations for navigation, while PPA and MPA support other aspects of scene processing. However, most previous studies tested only static scene images, which lack the dynamic experience of navigating through scenes. We used dynamic movie stimuli to test whether OPA, PPA, and MPA represent two critical kinds of navigationally-relevant information: navigational affordances (e.g., can I walk to the left, right, or both?) and ego-motion (e.g., am I walking forward or backward? turning left or right?). We found that OPA is sensitive to both affordances and ego-motion, as well as the conflict between these cues - e.g., turning toward versus away from an open doorway. These effects were significantly weaker or absent in PPA and MPA. Responses in OPA were also dissociable from those in early visual cortex, consistent with the idea that OPA responses are not merely explained by lower-level visual features. OPA responses to affordances and ego-motion were stronger in the contralateral than ipsilateral visual field, suggesting that OPA encodes navigationally relevant information within an egocentric reference frame. Taken together, these results support the hypothesis that OPA contains visual representations that are useful for planning and guiding navigation through scenes.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2021

Using child-friendly movie stimuli to study the development of face, place, and object regions from age 3 to 12 years

Scanning young children while watching short, engaging, commercially-produced movies has emerged as a promising approach for increasing data retention and quality. Movie stimuli also evoke a richer variety of cognitive processes than traditional experiments - allowing the study of multiple aspects of brain development simultaneously. However, because these stimuli are uncontrolled, it is unclear how effectively distinct profiles of brain activity can be distinguished from the resulting data. Here we develop an approach for identifying multiple distinct subject-specific Regions of Interest (ssROIs) using fMRI data collected during movie-viewing. We focused on the test case of higher-level visual regions selective for faces, scenes, and objects. Adults (N=13) were scanned while viewing a 5.5 minute child-friendly movie, as well as a traditional experiment with isolated faces, scenes, and objects. We found that just 2.7 minutes of movie data could identify subject-specific face, scene, and object regions. While successful, the movie approach was still less effective than a traditional localizer. Having validated our approach in adults, we then used the same methods on movie data collected from 3-12-year-old children (N=122). Movie response timecourses in 3-year-old childrens face, scene, and object regions were already significantly and specifically predicted by timecourses from the corresponding regions in adults. We also found evidence of continued developmental change, particularly in the face-selective posterior superior temporal sulcus. Taken together, our results reveal both early maturity and functional change in face, scene, and object regions, and more broadly highlight the promise of short, child-friendly movies for developmental cognitive neuroscience.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2019

A dual role for shape skeletons in human vision: perceptual organization and object recognition

Shape perception is crucial for object recognition. However, it remains unknown exactly how shape information is represented, and, consequently, used by the visual system. Here, we hypothesized that the visual system represents "shape skeletons" to both (1) perceptually organize contours and component parts into a shape percept, and (2) compare shapes to recognize objects. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and representational similarity analysis (RSA), we found that a model of skeletal similarity explained significant unique variance in the response profiles of V3 and LO, regions known to be involved in perceptual organization and object recognition, respectively. Moreover, the skeletal model remained predictive in these regions even when controlling for other models of visual similarity that approximate low- to high-level visual features (i.e., Gabor-jet, GIST, HMAX, and AlexNet), and across different surface forms, a manipulation that altered object contours while preserving the underlying skeleton. Together, these findings shed light on the functional roles of shape skeletons in human vision, as well as the computational properties of V3 and LO.

neuroscience↗