Distinct regions of right temporal cortex are associated with biological and human-agent motion: functional magnetic resonance imaging and neuropsychological evidence

J Neurosci. 2013 Sep 25;33(39):15442-53. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5868-12.2013.

Abstract

In human lateral temporal cortex, some regions show specific sensitivity to human motion. Here we examine whether such effects reflect a general biological-nonbiological organizational principle or a process specific to human-agent processing by comparing processing of human, animal, and tool motion in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment with healthy participants and a voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping (VLSM) study of patients with brain damage (77 stroke patients). The fMRI experiment revealed that in the lateral temporal cortex, the posterior superior temporal sulcus shows a preference for human and animal motion, whereas the middle part of the right superior temporal sulcus/gyrus (mSTS/STG) shows a preference for human and functional tool motion. VLSM analyses also revealed that damage to this right mSTS/STG region led to more severe impairment in the recognition of human and functional tool motion relative to animal motion, indicating the causal role of this brain area in human-agent motion processing. The findings for the right mSTS/STG cannot be reduced to a preference for articulated motion or processing of social variables since neither factor is involved in functional tool motion recognition. We conclude that a unidimensional biological-nonbiological distinction cannot fully explain the visual motion effects in lateral temporal cortex. Instead, the results suggest the existence of distinct components in right posterior temporal cortex and mSTS/STG that are associated, respectively, with biological motion and human-agent motion processing.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Brain Mapping*
  • Case-Control Studies
  • Cerebral Cortex / physiology*
  • Cerebral Cortex / physiopathology
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Motion Perception*
  • Stroke / physiopathology
  • Temporal Lobe / physiology*
  • Temporal Lobe / physiopathology