Reverse engineering brain networks for scene and object processing with non-invasive neuromodulation

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OBJECTIVE: Mounting evidence from behavioural measures, neuroimaging and clinical data has shown that objects and scenes are processed independently and that, counterintuitively, a scene can be categorized without the need to recognize any of its constituent objects. The goal of this research program is to examine the relationship between object and scene processing and, in particular, the contribution of object-selective cortical areas to scene processing and their corollary. My laboratory has demonstrated that non-invasive neuromodulation of object-selective cortex with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has remote effects across the brain in scene processing regions and behaviourally, it alters our ability to perceive scenes. This observation suggests for the first time that object and scene processing may not be as independent as previously thought but might instead involve mutual connections. In the proposed research program I will assess the functional connectivity of object-preferential cortex on scene perception and scene-preferential cortex on object perception at both the behavioural and neural level.