[DSRP Evidence](https://dsrpevidence.org/)

# A source for awareness-dependent figure–ground segregation in human prefrontal cortex

## Details

**Authors** Huang et al.

**Year** 2020

**Publisher** Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)

**Discipline** Neuroscience

[Read it at the publisher](https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1922832117) 
10.1073/pnas.1922832117

## In authors' words

### Abstract

Significance Figure–ground segregation, segmenting images by the visual system into figures and background, is the first processing step on the way to visual perception and relies on three complementary processes: boundary detection, region filling, and background suppression. By combining psychophysics, functional magnetic resonance imaging, and effective connectivity analysis, we showed that awareness was important for both region filling and background suppression, but less so for boundary detection. More importantly, we revealed that the awareness-dependent region-filling and background-suppression processes in V1 were derived by feedback from FEF and DLPFC, respectively. Our study indicates an awareness-dependent figure–ground segregation and identifies the human prefrontal cortex as a source of this fundamental process.

### What they set out to do (purpose)

To locate the neural source supporting awareness-dependent segregation of figure from ground.

### What they found (results)

fMRI + TMS identified a human prefrontal region whose activity is required for conscious figure–ground segregation; disrupting it impaired separation of figure from background.

## Commentary

### In short

The brain actively separates a bounded figure (identity) from its ground (other).

### In more detail

The brain actively separates a bounded figure (identity) from its ground (other) — the foundational act of drawing a boundary — and this depends on a specific prefrontal source. Purpose: To locate the neural source supporting awareness-dependent segregation of figure from ground. Finding: fMRI + TMS identified a human prefrontal region whose activity is required for conscious figure–ground segregation; disrupting it impaired separation of figure from background. [Added 2026-07-30 as new evidence beyond the original 109; DSRP structural basis: D axiom (Structural Unity): figure/ground is the canonical identity/other boundary; extends existing Peterson & Skow-Grant figure-ground entry with a causal neural source.]

**Patterns it shows** D

**Added** 2026-07-30

**How to cite this** Huang et al. (2020). A source for awareness-dependent figure–ground segregation in human prefrontal cortex. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).