Activation timecourse of ventral visual stream object-recognition areas: High density electrical mapping of perceptual closure processes

Object recognition is achieved even in circumstances when only partial info rmation is available to the observer. Perceptual closure processes are esse ntial in enabling such recognitions to occur. We presented successively les s fragmented images while recording high-density event-related potentials ( ERPs), which permitted us to monitor brain activity during the perceptual c losure processes leading up to object recognition. We reveal bilateral ERP component (N-d) that tracks these processes (onsets similar to 230 msec, ma ximal at similar to 290 msec). Scalp-current density mapping of the N-d rev ealed bilateral occipito-temporal scalp foci, which are consistent with gen erators in the human ventral visual stream, and specifically the lateral-oc cipital or LO complex as defined by hemodynamic studies of object recogniti on.