Virtual lesion of right posterior superior temporal sulcus modulates conscious visual perception of fearful expressions in faces and bodies

Cortex ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 65 ◽  
pp. 184-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matteo Candidi ◽  
Bernard M.C. Stienen ◽  
Salvatore M. Aglioti ◽  
Beatrice de Gelder
Keyword(s):  
Visual Perception ◽  
Superior Temporal Sulcus ◽  
Virtual Lesion ◽  
Posterior Superior Temporal Sulcus

scholarly journals Sensorimotor expectations bias motor resonance during observation of object lifting: The causal role of pSTS

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guy Rens ◽  
Vonne van Polanen ◽  
Alessandro Botta ◽  
Mareike A. Gann ◽  
Jean-Jacques Orban de Xivry ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Superior Temporal Sulcus ◽  
Corticospinal Excitability ◽  
Motor Resonance ◽  
Movement Kinematics ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Object Weight ◽  
Object Lifting ◽  
Virtual Lesion ◽  
Posterior Superior Temporal Sulcus ◽  
Suppressive Mechanism

AbstractTranscranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) studies have highlighted that corticospinal excitability (CSE) is increased during observation of object lifting, an effect termed ‘motor resonance’. This facilitation is driven by movement features indicative of object weight, such as object size or observed movement kinematics. Here, we investigated in 35 humans (23 females) how motor resonance is altered when the observer’s weight expectations, based on visual information, do not match the actual object weight as revealed by the observed movement kinematics. Our results highlight that motor resonance is not robustly driven by object weight but easily masked by a suppressive mechanism reflecting the correctness of the weight expectations. Subsequently, we investigated in 24 humans (14 females) whether this suppressive mechanism was driven by higher-order cortical areas. For this, we induced ‘virtual lesions’ to either the posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) or dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) prior to having participants perform the task. Importantly, virtual lesion of pSTS eradicated this suppressive mechanism and restored object weight-driven motor resonance. In addition, DLPFC virtual lesion eradicated any modulation of motor resonance. This indicates that motor resonance is heavily mediated by top-down inputs from both pSTS and DLPFC. Altogether, these findings shed new light on the theorized cortical network driving motor resonance. That is, our findings highlight that motor resonance is not only driven by the putative human mirror neuron network consisting of the primary motor and premotor cortices as well as the anterior intraparietal sulcus, but also by top-down input from pSTS and DLPFC.Significance StatementObservation of object lifting activates the observer’s motor system in a weight-specific fashion: Corticospinal excitability is larger when observing lifts of heavy objects compared to light ones. Interestingly, here we demonstrate that this weight-driven modulation of corticospinal excitability is easily suppressed by the observer’s expectations about object weight and that this suppression is mediated by the posterior superior temporal sulcus. Thus, our findings show that modulation of corticospinal excitability during observed object lifting is not robust but easily altered by top-down cognitive processes. Finally, our results also indicate how cortical inputs, originating remotely from motor pathways and processing action observation, overlap with bottom-up motor resonance effects.

Learning to See Biological Motion: Brain Activity Parallels Behavior

2004 ◽  
Vol 16 (9) ◽  
pp. 1669-1679 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily D. Grossman ◽  
Randolph Blake ◽  
Chai-Youn Kim
Keyword(s):  
Neural Activity ◽  
Biological Motion ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Daily Practice ◽  
Superior Temporal Sulcus ◽  
Fusiform Face Area ◽  
Face Area ◽  
Perceptual Performance ◽  
Trained Observers ◽  
Posterior Superior Temporal Sulcus

Individuals improve with practice on a variety of perceptual tasks, presumably reflecting plasticity in underlying neural mechanisms. We trained observers to discriminate biological motion from scrambled (nonbiological) motion and examined whether the resulting improvement in perceptual performance was accompanied by changes in activation within the posterior superior temporal sulcus and the fusiform “face area,” brain areas involved in perception of biological events. With daily practice, initially naive observers became more proficient at discriminating biological from scrambled animations embedded in an array of dynamic “noise” dots, with the extent of improvement varying among observers. Learning generalized to animations never seen before, indicating that observers had not simply memorized specific exemplars. In the same observers, neural activity prior to and following training was measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Neural activity within the posterior superior temporal sulcus and the fusiform “face area” reflected the participants' learning: BOLD signals were significantly larger after training in response both to animations experienced during training and to novel animations. The degree of learning was positively correlated with the amplitude changes in BOLD signals.

A region of right posterior superior temporal sulcus responds to observed intentional actions

2004 ◽  
Vol 42 (11) ◽  
pp. 1435-1446 ◽  
Author(s):  
R Saxe ◽  
D.-K Xiao ◽  
G Kovacs ◽  
D.I Perrett ◽  
N Kanwisher
Keyword(s):  
Superior Temporal Sulcus ◽  
Intentional Actions ◽  
Posterior Superior Temporal Sulcus

scholarly journals Rostro‐caudal organization of the human posterior superior temporal sulcus revealed by connectivity profiles

2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (12) ◽  
pp. 5112-5125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chen Cheng ◽  
Lingzhong Fan ◽  
Xiaoluan Xia ◽  
Simon B. Eickhoff ◽  
Hai Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Superior Temporal Sulcus ◽  
Posterior Superior Temporal Sulcus

scholarly journals Autism Spectrum Traits in the Typical Population Predict Structure and Function in the Posterior Superior Temporal Sulcus

2010 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 493-500 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabeth A. H. von dem Hagen ◽  
Lauri Nummenmaa ◽  
Rongjun Yu ◽  
Andrew D. Engell ◽  
Michael P. Ewbank ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Superior Temporal Sulcus ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Structure And Function ◽  
And Function ◽  
Posterior Superior Temporal Sulcus

scholarly journals Neural Responses to Expression and Gaze in the Posterior Superior Temporal Sulcus Interact with Facial Identity

2012 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 737-744 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heidi A. Baseler ◽  
Richard J. Harris ◽  
Andrew W. Young ◽  
Timothy J. Andrews
Keyword(s):  
Superior Temporal Sulcus ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Facial Identity ◽  
Posterior Superior Temporal Sulcus

Perceiving identical sounds as speech or non-speech modulates activity in the left posterior superior temporal sulcus

NeuroImage ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 563-569 ◽  
Author(s):  
Riikka Möttönen ◽  
Gemma A. Calvert ◽  
Iiro P. Jääskeläinen ◽  
Paul M. Matthews ◽  
Thomas Thesen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Superior Temporal Sulcus ◽  
Left Posterior ◽  
Posterior Superior Temporal Sulcus
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document