Shock-like haemodynamic responses induced in the primary visual cortex by moving visual stimuli

Authors

T C. Lacy
K M. Aquino, University of Sydney
Peter Robinson, University of SydneyFollow
Mark M. Schira, University of WollongongFollow

RIS ID

112075

Publication Details

Lacy, T. C., Aquino, K. M., Robinson, P. & Schira, M. M. (2016). Shock-like haemodynamic responses induced in the primary visual cortex by moving visual stimuli. Journal of the Royal Society Interface, 13 (125),

Abstract

It is shown that recently discovered haemodynamic waves can form shock-like fronts when driven by stimuli that excite the cortex in a patch that moves faster than the haemodynamic wave velocity. If stimuli are chosen in order to induce shock-like behaviour, the resulting blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) response is enhanced, thereby improving the signal to noise ratio of measurements made with functional magnetic resonance imaging. A spatio-temporal haemodynamic model is extended to calculate the BOLD response and determine the main properties of waves induced by moving stimuli. From this, the optimal conditions for stimulating shock-like responses are determined, and ways of inducing these responses in experiments are demonstrated in a pilot study.