Noninvasive precision modulation of high-level neural population activity via natural vision perturbations

Precise control of neural activity -- modulating target neurons deep in the brain while leaving nearby neurons unaffected -- is an outstanding challenge in neuroscience, generally approached using invasive techniques. This study investigates the possibility of precisely and noninvasively modulating neural activity in the high-level primate ventral visual stream via perturbations on one's natural visual feed. When tested on macaque inferior temporal (IT) neural populations, we found quantitative agreement between the model-predicted and biologically realized effect: strong modulation concentrated on targeted neural sites. We extended this to demonstrate accurate injection of experimenter-chosen neural population patterns via subtle perturbations applied on the background of typical natural visual feeds. These results highlight that current machine-executable models of the ventral stream can now design noninvasive, visually-delivered, possibly imperceptible neural interventions at the resolution of individual neurons.

@article{gaziv2025_2506.05633,
  title={ Noninvasive precision modulation of high-level neural population activity via natural vision perturbations },
  author={ Guy Gaziv and Sarah Goulding and Ani Ayvazian-Hancock and Yoon Bai and James J. DiCarlo },
  journal={arXiv preprint arXiv:2506.05633},
  year={ 2025 }
}