Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive Affective Learning Enhances Visual Detection and Responses in Primary Visual Cortex

The affective significance of a visual item is thought to lead to enhanced visual processing. However, the precise link between enhanced visual perception of emotion-laden items and increased visual responses remains poorly understood. To investigate this link, we ac-quired functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data while participants performed a challenging visual detection task. Grating stimuli were physically identical and differed only as a function of their previous exposure history; CS stimuli were initially pairedwith shock, whereas CS stimuli were not. Behaviorally, subjects were both faster and more accurate during CS relative to CS target detection. These behavioral results were paralleled by increases in fMRI responses across early, retinotopically organized visual cortex, which was mapped in a separate fMRI session. Logistic regression analyses revealed that trial-by-trial fluctuations in fMRI responses were closely linked to trial type, such that fMRI signal strength reliably predicted the probability of a hit trial across retinotopically organized visual cortex, including areaV1. For instance, during theCS condition, a 0.5%signal change increased the probability of a hit from chance to 67.3–73.5 % inV1–V4 (the highest increase was observed in area V1). Furthermore, across participants, differential fMRI responses to hits versus correct rejectswere correlatedwith behavioral performance. Our findings provide a close link between increased activation in early visual cortex and improved behavioral performance as a function of the affective significance of an item. Key words: visual detection; primary visual cortex; classical conditioning; emotion; vision; fMR