Institut für Psychologie, Universität Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany.
J Neurophysiol. 2023 Apr 1;129(4):948-962. doi: 10.1152/jn.00431.2022. Epub 2023 Mar 29.
Self-motion perception involves an interaction between vestibular and visual brain regions. In the lateral brain, it includes the parietoinsular vestibular cortex and the posterior insular cortex. In the medial cortex, the cingulate sulcus visual (CSv) area is known to process visual-vestibular cues. Here, we show that the vestibular-visual network of the medial cortex extends beyond area CSv. We examined brain activations of 36 healthy right-handed participants by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during stimulation with caloric vestibular, thermal, or visual motion cues. Consistent with previous research, we found that area CSv responded to both vestibular and visual cues but not to thermal cues. Moreover, the V6 complex and the precuneus motion (PcM) area responded primarily to (laminar-translational) visual motion cues. However, we also observed a region inferior to CSv within the pericallosal sulcus (vicinity of anterior retrosplenial) that primarily responded to vestibular cues. This vestibular pericallosal sulcus (vPCS) region did not respond to either visual or thermal cues. It was also distinct from a more posterior motion-sensitive region in the retrosplenial complex (mRSC) that responded to (radial) visual motion but not to vestibular and thermal cues. Together, our results suggest that the vestibular-visual network in the medial cortex not only includes areas CSv, PcM, and the V6 complex but also two additional brain regions adjacent to the callosum. These two brain regions exhibit similarities in terms of their locations and responses to vestibular and visual cues with self-motion-related brain regions recently described in nonhuman primates. Self-motion perception involves several vestibular and visual cortical regions. Within the medial cortex, the cingulate sulcus visual (CSv) area, the precuneus motion (PcM) area, and the V6 complex respond selectively to self-motion cues. Here, we show that vestibular information is also processed in the pericallosal sulcus (vPCS), whereas (radial) visual motion information is associated with activation in the retrosplenial cortex (mRSC).
自我运动感知涉及前庭和视觉大脑区域之间的相互作用。在外侧脑区，它包括顶内沟前庭皮质和后岛叶皮质。在内侧脑区，扣带沟视觉（CSv）区域已知处理视觉-前庭线索。在这里，我们表明，内侧脑区的前庭-视觉网络延伸到 CSv 区域之外。我们通过功能磁共振成像（fMRI）检查了 36 名健康右利手参与者的大脑激活情况，这些参与者在接受冷热水前庭、热或视觉运动线索刺激时。与之前的研究一致，我们发现 CSv 区域对前庭和视觉线索都有反应，但对热线索没有反应。此外，V6 复合体和楔前叶运动（PcM）区域主要对（层状-平移）视觉运动线索有反应。然而，我们还观察到扣带沟内下方的一个区域（前后扣带回附近），该区域主要对前庭线索有反应。这个前庭扣带沟（vPCS）区域对视觉或热线索均无反应。它也与后扣带回复合体中一个更靠后的运动敏感区域（mRSC）不同，mRSC 对（放射状）视觉运动有反应，但对前庭和热线索没有反应。总的来说，我们的结果表明，内侧脑区的前庭-视觉网络不仅包括 CSv、PcM 和 V6 复合体等区域，还包括与胼胝体相邻的另外两个脑区。这两个脑区在位置和对前庭和视觉线索的反应方面与最近在非人类灵长类动物中描述的与自我运动相关的脑区相似。自我运动感知涉及几个前庭和视觉皮质区域。在内侧脑区，扣带沟视觉（CSv）区域、楔前叶运动（PcM）区域和 V6 复合体对自我运动线索有选择性反应。在这里，我们表明，前庭信息也在前扣带沟（vPCS）中被处理，而（放射状）视觉运动信息与后扣带回皮层（mRSC）的激活有关。
