Center of Neurology, Division of Neuropsychology, Hertie-Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University of Tübingen, Germany.
Brain Struct Funct. 2012 Jul;217(3):735-46. doi: 10.1007/s00429-011-0369-y. Epub 2011 Dec 23.
Grouping processes enable the coherent perception of our environment. A number of brain areas has been suggested to be involved in the integration of elements into objects including early and higher visual areas along the ventral visual pathway as well as motion-processing areas of the dorsal visual pathway. However, integration not only is required for the cortical representation of individual objects, but is also essential for the perception of more complex visual scenes consisting of several different objects and/or shapes. The present fMRI experiments aimed to address such integration processes. We investigated the neural correlates underlying the global Gestalt perception of hierarchically organized stimuli that allowed parametrical degrading of the object at the global level. The comparison of intact versus disturbed perception of the global Gestalt revealed a network of cortical areas including the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ), anterior cingulate cortex and the precuneus. The TPJ location corresponds well with the areas known to be typically lesioned in stroke patients with simultanagnosia following bilateral brain damage. These patients typically show a deficit in identifying the global Gestalt of a visual scene. Further, we found the closest relation between behavioral performance and fMRI activation for the TPJ. Our data thus argue for a significant role of the TPJ in human global Gestalt perception.
分组过程使我们能够连贯地感知环境。许多大脑区域被认为参与了将元素整合到物体中的过程，包括腹侧视觉通路中的早期和高级视觉区域以及背侧视觉通路中的运动处理区域。然而，整合不仅是单个物体的皮质代表所必需的，而且对于感知由几个不同物体和/或形状组成的更复杂的视觉场景也是必不可少的。本 fMRI 实验旨在解决这些整合过程。我们研究了在层次组织的刺激下整体格式塔感知的神经相关性，这些刺激允许对全局水平的物体进行参数降级。完整与受干扰的全局格式塔感知的比较揭示了一个包括颞顶联合区（TPJ）、前扣带皮层和楔前叶的皮质区域网络。TPJ 的位置与中风患者双侧脑损伤后同时失认症的典型损伤区域非常吻合。这些患者通常表现出识别视觉场景整体格式塔的缺陷。此外，我们发现 TPJ 的行为表现和 fMRI 激活之间存在最密切的关系。因此，我们的数据表明 TPJ 在人类整体格式塔感知中具有重要作用。
