University of Rochester, Department of Brain & Cognitive Sciences, 358 Meliora Hall, Rochester, NY, USA.
University of Rochester, Center for Language Sciences, 358 Meliora Hall, Rochester, NY, USA.
Cereb Cortex. 2019 Jul 5;29(7):3168-3181. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhy183.
Neural responses to small manipulable objects ("tools") in high-level visual areas in ventral temporal cortex (VTC) provide an opportunity to test how anatomically remote regions modulate ventral stream processing in a domain-specific manner. Prior patient studies indicate that grasp-relevant information can be computed about objects by dorsal stream structures independently of processing in VTC. Prior functional neuroimaging studies indicate privileged functional connectivity between regions of VTC exhibiting tool preferences and regions of parietal cortex supporting object-directed action. Here we test whether lesions to parietal cortex modulate tool preferences within ventral and lateral temporal cortex. We found that lesions to the left anterior intraparietal sulcus, a region that supports hand-shaping during object grasping and manipulation, modulate tool preferences in left VTC and in the left posterior middle temporal gyrus. Control analyses demonstrated that neural responses to "place" stimuli in left VTC were unaffected by lesions to parietal cortex, indicating domain-specific consequences for ventral stream neural responses in the setting of parietal lesions. These findings provide causal evidence that neural specificity for "tools" in ventral and lateral temporal lobe areas may arise, in part, from online inputs to VTC from parietal areas that receive inputs via the dorsal visual pathway.
颞叶腹侧皮层（VTC）高级视觉区域中对小型可操作物体（“工具”）的神经反应为测试解剖学上遥远的区域如何以特定于域的方式调节腹侧流处理提供了机会。先前的患者研究表明，与抓握相关的信息可以通过背侧流结构独立于 VTC 中的处理来计算有关物体的信息。先前的功能神经影像学研究表明，表现出工具偏好的 VTC 区域与支持物体定向动作的顶叶皮层区域之间存在特权功能连接。在这里，我们测试顶叶皮层损伤是否会调节腹侧和外侧颞叶中的工具偏好。我们发现，左侧前内顶叶沟的损伤（该区域支持物体抓取和操作期间的手形塑造）会调节左侧 VTC 和左侧后颞中叶中的工具偏好。控制分析表明，左侧 VTC 中“位置”刺激的神经反应不受顶叶皮层损伤的影响，这表明在顶叶损伤的情况下，腹侧流神经反应具有特定于域的后果。这些发现提供了因果证据，表明腹侧和外侧颞叶区域中对“工具”的神经特异性可能部分源于通过背侧视觉通路接收输入的顶叶区域对 VTC 的在线输入。
