Distinct Regions of Right Temporal Cortex Are Associated with Biological and Human-Agent Motion: Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Neuropsychological Evidence

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Zaizhu Han, Beijing Normal University; Yanchao Bi, Beijing Normal University; Jing Chen, Emory University; Quanjing Chen, Beijing Normal University; Yong He, Beijing Normal University; Alfonso Caramazza, Harvard University
• Language: English
• Date: 2013-09-25
• Publisher: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © 2013 the authors.
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5868-12.2013
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Journal of Neuroscience Nursing
• ISSN: 0888-0395
• Volume: 33
• Issue: 39
• Start Page: 15442
• End Page: 15453
• Grant/Funding Information: A.C. was supported by the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Trento e Rovereto.; This work was supported by the 973 Program (Grant 2013CB837300), the Major Project of the National Social Science Foundation (Grant 11&ZD186), NSFC (Grants 31171073, 31222024, 31271115, 81030028, and 31221003), NCET (Grants 12-0055 and 12-0065), the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (Grant 81225012 to Y.H.), and Grant BJNSF (7122089).
• Keywords: BRAIN-AREAS; COMMON; Neurosciences; RESPONSES; Neurosciences & Neurology; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; Science & Technology; VISUAL-PERCEPTION; MODEL
• Research Categories: Biology, Neuroscience; Health Sciences, Radiology

Abstract

In human lateral temporal cortex, some regions show specific sensitivity to human motion. Here we examine whether such effects reflect a general biological-nonbiological organizational principle or a process specific to human-agent processing by comparing processing of human, animal, and tool motion in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment with healthy participants and a voxelbased lesion-symptom mapping (VLSM) study of patients with brain damage (77 stroke patients). The fMRI experiment revealed that in the lateral temporal cortex, the posterior superior temporal sulcus shows a preference for human and animal motion, whereas the middle part of the right superior temporal sulcus/gyrus (mSTS/STG) shows a preference for human and functional tool motion. VLSM analyses also revealed that damage to this right mSTS/STG region led to more severe impairment in the recognition of human and functional tool motion relative to animal motion, indicating the causal role of this brain area in human-agent motion processing. The findings for the right mSTS/STG cannot be reduced to a preference for articulated motion or processing of social variables since neither factor is involved in functional tool motion recognition. We conclude that a unidimensional biological-nonbiological distinction cannot fully explain the visual motion effects in lateral temporal cortex. Instead, the results suggest the existence of distinct components in right posterior temporal cortex and mSTS/STG that are associated, respectively, with biological motion and human-agent motion processing.