Pietrini Pietro, Furey Maura L, Ricciardi Emiliano, Gobbini M Ida, Wu W-H Carolyn, Cohen Leonardo, Guazzelli Mario, Haxby James V
Laboratory of Clinical Biochemistry, Department of Experimental Pathology, University of Pisa Medical School, I-56126 Pisa, Italy.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2004 Apr 13;101(15):5658-63. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0400707101. Epub 2004 Apr 2.
We investigated whether the topographically organized, category-related patterns of neural response in the ventral visual pathway are a representation of sensory images or a more abstract representation of object form that is not dependent on sensory modality. We used functional MRI to measure patterns of response evoked during visual and tactile recognition of faces and manmade objects in sighted subjects and during tactile recognition in blind subjects. Results showed that visual and tactile recognition evoked category-related patterns of response in a ventral extrastriate visual area in the inferior temporal gyrus that were correlated across modality for manmade objects. Blind subjects also demonstrated category-related patterns of response in this "visual" area, and in more ventral cortical regions in the fusiform gyrus, indicating that these patterns are not due to visual imagery and, furthermore, that visual experience is not necessary for category-related representations to develop in these cortices. These results demonstrate that the representation of objects in the ventral visual pathway is not simply a representation of visual images but, rather, is a representation of more abstract features of object form.
我们研究了腹侧视觉通路中按地形组织的、与类别相关的神经反应模式是感觉图像的表征，还是物体形式的更抽象表征，这种表征不依赖于感觉模态。我们使用功能磁共振成像来测量视力正常的受试者在视觉和触觉识别面孔及人造物体时以及盲人受试者在触觉识别时诱发的反应模式。结果表明，视觉和触觉识别在下颞叶腹侧纹外视觉区域诱发了与类别相关的反应模式，这些模式在人造物体的不同模态间具有相关性。盲人受试者在这个“视觉”区域以及梭状回中更腹侧的皮质区域也表现出与类别相关的反应模式，这表明这些模式并非源于视觉意象，此外，视觉经验对于这些皮质中与类别相关的表征的发展并非必要。这些结果表明，腹侧视觉通路中物体的表征并非仅仅是视觉图像的表征，而是物体形式更抽象特征的表征。
