Barraclough Nick E, Xiao Dengke, Oram Mike W, Perrett David I
School of Psychology, St. Mary's College, University of St. Andrews, South Street, St. Andrews, Fife KY16 9JP, UK.
Prog Brain Res. 2006;154:135-48. doi: 10.1016/S0079-6123(06)54007-5.
We readily use the form of human figures to determine if they are moving. Human figures that have arms and legs outstretched (articulated) appear to be moving more than figures where the arms and legs are near the body (standing). We tested whether neurons in the macaque monkey superior temporal sulcus (STS), a region known to be involved in processing social stimuli, were sensitive to the degree of articulation of a static human figure. Additionally, we tested sensitivity to the same stimuli within forward and backward walking sequences. We found that 57% of cells that responded to the static image of a human figure was also sensitive to the degree of articulation of the figure. Some cells displayed selective responses for articulated postures, while others (in equal numbers) displayed selective responses for standing postures. Cells selective for static images of articulated figures were more likely to respond to movies of walking forwards than walking backwards. Cells selective for static images of standing figures were more likely to respond to movies of walking backwards than forwards. An association between form sensitivity and walking sensitivity could be consistent with an interpretation that cell responses to articulated figures act as an implied motion signal.
我们很容易通过人体形态来判断他们是否在移动。四肢伸展（关节活动）的人体形态看起来比四肢靠近身体（站立）的形态移动得更多。我们测试了猕猴颞上沟（STS）中的神经元是否对静态人体形态的关节活动程度敏感，该区域已知参与社会刺激的处理。此外，我们还测试了在向前和向后行走序列中对相同刺激的敏感性。我们发现，对人体静态图像有反应的细胞中，57%也对人体形态的关节活动程度敏感。一些细胞对关节姿势表现出选择性反应，而其他细胞（数量相等）对站立姿势表现出选择性反应。对关节形态静态图像有选择性的细胞对向前行走的视频比对向后行走的视频更有可能做出反应。对站立形态静态图像有选择性的细胞对向后行走的视频比对向前行走的视频更有可能做出反应。形态敏感性和行走敏感性之间的关联可能与细胞对关节形态的反应充当隐含运动信号的解释一致。
