Laboratory for Behavioral Neurology & Imaging of Cognition, Department of Neuroscience & Clinic of Neurology, Medical School, University of Geneva, Switzerland.
Neuroimage. 2011 Mar 1;55(1):411-9. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2010.11.033. Epub 2010 Nov 21.
Human gaze is a critical social cue that can reveal intentions and dispositions of others. The right posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) is thought to be critically involved in processing eye gaze information. We combined diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to identify direct neural connections of right pSTS and to determine how these connections are modulated by the social significance of perceived gaze shifts. Participants saw faces with direct or averted gaze during event-related fMRI. Half of these faces remained static, and half displayed a dynamic gaze shift either towards or away from the subject. Social attention (dynamic gaze shifts towards the observer) not only increased activity in right pSTS, but also its functional connectivity with the right anterior insula (aIns) and right fusiform gyrus (FG). However, direct fiber connections from pSTS were demonstrated by DTI for the right aIns, but not the right FG. Moreover, the right FG responded to eye motion irrespective of direction and social significance; whereas the right aIns was selectively sensitive to social significance (i.e. gaze shifts towards the observer), but not generally to eye motion. We conclude that the social aspects of mutual gaze contact are processed by direct fiber pathways between right pSTS and right aIns; whereas increased connectivity with FG could reflect an enhanced perceptual analysis of changing facial features in dynamic gaze conditions and involves indirect fiber pathways with pSTS, perhaps via motion-selective regions in middle temporal (MT) gyrus that exhibited strong white-matter connections with both pSTS and FG and could thus provide inputs to these two areas.
人类的注视是一种重要的社交线索，可以揭示他人的意图和倾向。右侧后上颞叶回（pSTS）被认为是处理眼球注视信息的关键区域。我们结合弥散张量成像（DTI）和功能磁共振成像（fMRI）来确定右侧 pSTS 的直接神经连接，并确定这些连接如何被感知到的注视转移的社会意义所调节。参与者在事件相关 fMRI 期间观察到直接或转移目光的面孔。这些面孔的一半保持静止，另一半显示出动态的注视转移，要么朝向观察者，要么远离观察者。社会注意力（朝向观察者的动态注视转移）不仅增加了右侧 pSTS 的活动，还增加了其与右侧前岛叶（aIns）和右侧梭状回（FG）的功能连接。然而，通过 DTI 证明了 pSTS 到右侧 aIns 的直接纤维连接，但不是到右侧 FG 的连接。此外，右侧 FG 对眼球运动的反应与方向和社会意义无关；而右侧 aIns 则对社会意义（即注视朝向观察者）敏感，而不是对眼球运动一般敏感。我们得出结论，相互注视接触的社会方面是通过右侧 pSTS 和右侧 aIns 之间的直接纤维通路来处理的；而与 FG 的连接增加可能反映了在动态注视条件下对面部特征变化的增强感知分析，并且涉及与 pSTS 的间接纤维通路，可能通过颞中（MT）回中的运动选择区域，该区域与 pSTS 和 FG 都有强烈的白质连接，并可以为这两个区域提供输入。
