Chesley Jane, Riecke Lars, Lu Juanzhi, Vogels Rufin, de Gelder Beatrice
Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Laboratory for Neuro, and Psychophysiology, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven Medical School, Leuven, Belgium.
Imaging Neurosci (Camb). 2024 Apr 26;2. doi: 10.1162/imag_a_00150. eCollection 2024.
Among social stimuli that trigger rapid reactions, body images occupy a prominent place. Given that bodies carry information about other agents' intentions, actions and emotional expressions, a foundational question concerns the neural basis of body processing. Previous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have investigated this but were not yet able to clarify the time course and its functional significance. The present EEG study investigated the role of slow oscillatory cortical activity in body processing and species-specificity. Human participants viewed naturalistic images of human and monkey bodies, faces, and objects, along with mosaic-scrambled versions to control for low-level visual features. Analysis of event-related theta power (4-7 Hz) combined with data-driven methods revealed a strong, body-evoked neural response that is specific to human bodies and spans a widespread scalp region during a time window of 200-550 ms after the onset of the body image. Our results corroborate recent research proposing a species-specific cortical network of human body processing. We submit that this network may play an essential role in linking body processes to movement intentions.
在引发快速反应的社会刺激中，身体形象占据显著地位。鉴于身体承载着有关其他个体意图、行动和情感表达的信息，一个基本问题涉及身体加工的神经基础。以往的功能磁共振成像（fMRI）研究对此进行了探究，但尚未能够阐明其时间进程及其功能意义。本脑电图（EEG）研究调查了慢振荡皮层活动在身体加工及物种特异性方面的作用。人类参与者观看了人类和猴子身体、面部及物体的自然主义图像，以及用于控制低水平视觉特征的镶嵌式打乱版本。对事件相关θ波功率（4 - 7赫兹）的分析结合数据驱动方法，揭示了一种强烈的、由身体诱发的神经反应，该反应对人体具有特异性，且在身体图像出现后200 - 550毫秒的时间窗口内跨越广泛的头皮区域。我们的结果证实了最近提出的关于人体加工的物种特异性皮层网络的研究。我们认为，该网络可能在将身体过程与运动意图联系起来方面发挥重要作用。
