ArticleNature communications2025
Human V4 size predicts crowding distance.
Article in Nature communications, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed.
- Sulcal pleating captures functional boundaries in human visual cortex.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- A large-scale heterogeneous 3D magnetic resonance brain imaging dataset for self-supervised learning.Scientific data · 2026Article
- Visual field inhomogeneities and the architectonics of early visual cortex shape visual working memory.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2026Article
- Development of Crowding Distance in Children Is Faster and Later Than Visual Acuity and Better Predicts Reading Performance.Investigative ophthalmology & visual science · 2026Article
- An increasingly efficient narrowband object-recognition channel along the ventral stream.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Predicting functional topography of the human visual cortex from cortical anatomy at scale.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- A case study of sudden-onset cortically mediated visual impairments in a 12-year-old.Research square · 2025Article
- Visual adaptation stronger at the horizontal than the vertical meridian: Linking performance with V1 cortical surface area.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Responses of neurons in macaque V4 to object and texture images.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
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6 authors.
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Abstract
Visual recognition is limited by both object size (acuity) and spacing. The spacing limit, called "crowding", is the failure to recognize an object in the presence of other objects. Here, we take advantage of individual differences in crowding to investigate its biological basis. Crowding distance, the minimum object spacing needed for recognition, varies 2-fold among healthy adults. We test the conjecture that this variation in psychophysical crowding distance is due to variation in cortical map size. To test this, we make paired measurements of brain and behavior in 49 observers. We use psychophysics to measure crowding distance and calculate λ, the number of letters that fit into each observer's visual field without crowding. In the same observers, we use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure the surface area A of retinotopic maps V1, V2, V3, and V4. Across observers, λ is proportional to the surface area of V4 but is uncorrelated with the surface area of V1 to V3. The proportional relationship of λ to area of V4 indicates conservation of cortical crowding distance across individuals: letters can be recognized if they are spaced by at least 1.4 mm on the V4 map, irrespective of map size and psychophysical crowding distance. We conclude that the size of V4 predicts the spacing limit of visual perception.
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