Mahon Bradford Z, Anzellotti Stefano, Schwarzbach Jens, Zampini Massimiliano, Caramazza Alfonso
Center for Mind/Brain Sciences (CIMeC), University of Trento, Rovereto, TN 38068, Italy.
Neuron. 2009 Aug 13;63(3):397-405. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2009.07.012.
Distinct regions within the ventral visual pathway show neural specialization for nonliving and living stimuli (e.g., tools, houses versus animals, faces). The causes of these category preferences are widely debated. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we find that the same regions of the ventral stream that show category preferences for nonliving stimuli and animals in sighted adults show the same category preferences in adults who are blind since birth. Both blind and sighted participants had larger blood oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) responses in the medial fusiform gyrus for nonliving stimuli compared to animal stimuli and differential BOLD responses in lateral occipital cortex for animal stimuli compared to nonliving stimuli. These findings demonstrate that the medial-to-lateral bias by conceptual domain in the ventral visual pathway does not require visual experience in order to develop and suggest the operation of innately determined domain-specific constraints on the organization of object knowledge.
腹侧视觉通路中的不同区域对无生命和有生命刺激（如工具、房屋与动物、面孔）表现出神经特化。这些类别偏好的成因存在广泛争议。通过功能磁共振成像，我们发现，在视力正常的成年人中，腹侧视觉通路中对无生命刺激和动物表现出类别偏好的相同区域，在先天性失明的成年人中也表现出相同的类别偏好。与动物刺激相比，盲人和视力正常的参与者对无生命刺激在内侧梭状回中的血氧水平依赖（BOLD）反应更大，而与无生命刺激相比，动物刺激在枕叶外侧皮质中的BOLD反应存在差异。这些发现表明，腹侧视觉通路中按概念领域从内侧到外侧的偏向性发展并不需要视觉经验，并提示了先天确定的领域特异性限制对物体知识组织的作用。
