Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, USA.
Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, USA.
Neuropsychologia. 2019 Apr;127:158-170. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2019.03.001. Epub 2019 Mar 5.
Visual processing in the primate brain is highly organized along the ventral visual pathway, although it is still unclear how categorical selectivity emerges in this system. While many theories have attempted to explain the pattern of visual specialization within the ventral occipital and temporal areas, the biased connectivity hypothesis provides a framework which postulates extrinsic connectivity as a potential mechanism in shaping the development of category selectivity. As the posterior parietal cortex plays a central role in visual attention, we examined whether the pattern of parietal connectivity with the face and scene processing regions is closely linked with the functional properties of these two visually selective networks in a cohort of 60 children ages 9 to 12. Functionally localized face and scene selective regions were used in deriving each visual network's resting-state functional connectivity. The children's face and scene processing networks appeared to show a weak network segregation during resting state, which was confirmed when compared to that of a group of gender and handedness matched adults. Parietal regions of these children showed differential connectivity with the face and scene networks, and the extent of this differential parietal-visual connectivity predicted individual differences in the degree of segregation between the two visual networks, which in turn predicted individual differences in visual perception performance. Finally, the pattern of parietal connectivity with the face processing network also predicted the foci of face-related activation in the right fusiform gyrus across children. These findings provide evidence that extrinsic connectivity with regions such as the posterior parietal cortex may have important implications in the development of specialized visual processing networks.
灵长类动物大脑中的视觉处理沿着腹侧视觉通路高度组织，尽管目前尚不清楚类别选择性如何在该系统中出现。虽然许多理论试图解释腹侧枕叶和颞叶区域内的视觉专业化模式，但偏向连接假说提供了一个框架，假设外在连接是塑造类别选择性发展的潜在机制。由于顶后皮质在视觉注意力中起着核心作用，我们在一组 60 名 9 至 12 岁的儿童中检查了与面孔和场景处理区域的顶连接模式是否与这两个视觉选择性网络的功能特性密切相关。功能定位的面孔和场景选择性区域用于得出每个视觉网络的静息状态功能连接。与一组性别和惯用手匹配的成年人相比，这些儿童的面孔和场景处理网络在静息状态下似乎表现出较弱的网络分离，这一点得到了证实。这些儿童的顶叶区域与面孔和场景网络显示出不同的连接，这种差异顶叶-视觉连接的程度预测了两个视觉网络之间分离程度的个体差异，而这反过来又预测了视觉感知表现的个体差异。最后，与面孔处理网络的顶连接模式也预测了右梭状回中与面孔相关的激活焦点在儿童中的分布。这些发现提供了证据表明，与顶后皮质等区域的外在连接可能对专门化视觉处理网络的发展具有重要意义。
