Biology subjects

Setti, F.

Publications and source records attributed to Setti, F..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Brain-wide distributed processing underlying natural vision and audition

A key challenge in neuroscience is understanding how large-scale brain dynamics give rise to perception under naturalistic conditions. Here we address this question using multivariate information decomposition of functional interactions between brain regions while typically developed, congenitally blind and congenitally deaf participants experienced audiovisual, auditory-only or visual-only versions of the same narrative. This approach allowed us to resolve information dynamics into redundant components, indexing shared information and sensory robustness, and synergistic components, indexing distributed processing that emerges only through joint interactions between brain regions. Redundant interactions were closely aligned with conventional functional connectivity and captured sensory modality- and experience-dependent differences mainly within sensory systems, whereas synergistic interactions captured these differences across high-level cortical areas. Crucially, prefrontal cortex coordinated brain dynamics through synergistic interactions independently of sensory modality and previous sensory experience, consistent with a modality-independent hub that encodes high-level semantic information and orchestrates the demands of naturalistic perception. Moreover, multimodal perception elicited the strongest high-order synergistic interactions across distributed brain subsystems, followed by unimodal visual and auditory perception, whereas sensory deprivation reduced this distributed architecture. Finally, synergistic and redundant interactions jointly supported the encoding of low-level sensory and high-level perceptual features, revealing how the trade-off between sensory robustness and distributed processing is organized across the human brain. Together, these results reveal a brain-wide information architecture for natural vision and audition, illuminating how distributed processing in the human brain supports rich perceptual experience.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2025

Beyond Reorganization: Intrinsic cortical hierarchies constrain experience-dependent plasticity in sensory-deprived humans

Innate cortical organisation and postnatal sensory experience interact dynamically to shape the functional architecture of the human brain. Using naturalistic stimulation, functional gradient analyses, and comparative approaches in congenitally blind, congenitally deaf, and typically developed individuals, we investigated how intrinsic hierarchical structures and sensory experiences influence cortical organisation. Our findings demonstrate that the principal functional gradients spanning from unimodal sensory to transmodal association cortices are consistently preserved across all groups, suggesting a robust genetically determined cortical scaffold. Nonetheless, congenital sensory deprivation selectively reshapes the geometry of modality-specific gradients, characterised by reduced functional differentiation within sensory-deprived cortical regions. These geometric contractions promote experience-driven plastic reorganization, enabling deprived sensory areas to establish enhanced functional connectivity with transmodal and non-deprived sensory cortices. Critically, this reorganisation aligns systematically with pre-existing cortical gradients, highlighting intrinsic hierarchical constraints that guide experience-dependent plasticity. Moreover, sensory-deprived regions exhibiting heightened connectivity actively engage in processing structured perceptual information from intact modalities, reflecting specific feature-driven cross-modal adaptations. Collectively, these results underscore a fundamental duality in cortical organisation: innate hierarchical principles impose constraints on cortical architecture, while sensory experience drives adaptive refinement, demonstrating the brains intrinsic capacity for flexible functional reconfiguration in response to sensory deprivation.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2023

Abstract, modality-specific and experience-dependent coding of affect in the human brain

Emotion and perception are tightly intertwined, as affective experiences often arise from the appraisal of sensory information. Nonetheless, whether the brain encodes emotional instances using a sensory-specific code or in a more abstract manner is unclear. Here, we answer this question by measuring the association between emotion ratings collected during a unisensory or multisensory presentation of a full-length movie and brain activity recorded in typically-developed, congenitally blind and congenitally deaf participants. Emotional instances are encoded in a vast network encompassing sensory, prefrontal, and temporal cortices. Within this network, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex stores a categorical representation of emotion independent of modality and experience, and the posterior superior temporal cortex maps valence using an abstract code. Sensory experience more than modality impacts how the brain organizes emotional information outside supramodal regions, suggesting the existence of a scaffold for the representation of emotional states where sensory inputs during development shape its functioning.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2022

A modality independent proto-organization of human multisensory areas

The processing of multisensory information is based upon the capacity of brain regions, such as the superior temporal cortex, to combine information across modalities. However, it is still unclear whether the representation of coherent auditory and visual events does require any prior audiovisual experience to develop and function. In three fMRI experiments, intersubject correlation analysis measured brain synchronization during the presentation of an audiovisual, audio-only or video-only versions of the same narrative in distinct groups of sensory-deprived (congenitally blind and deaf) and typically-developed individuals. The superior temporal cortex synchronized across auditory and visual conditions, even in sensory-deprived individuals who lack any audiovisual experience. This synchronization was primarily mediated by low-level perceptual features and relied on a similar modality-independent topographical organization of temporal dynamics. The human superior temporal cortex is naturally endowed with a functional scaffolding to yield a common representation across multisensory events.

neuroscience↗