Broad and narrow conceptual tuning in the human frontal lobes.

ABSTRACT: Previous work has implicated prefrontal cortices in selecting among and retrieving conceptual information stored elsewhere. However, recent neurophysiological work in monkeys suggests that prefrontal cortex may play a more direct role in representing conceptual information in a flexible context-specific manner. Here, we investigate the nature of visual object representations from perceptual to conceptual levels in an unbiased data-driven manner using a functional magnetic resonance imaging adaptation paradigm with pictures of animals. Throughout much of occipital cortex, activity was highly sensitive to changes in 2D stimulus form, consistent with tuning to form and position within retinotopic coordinates and matching an automated measure of shape similarity. Broad superordinate conceptual

SUBMITTER: Gotts SJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3020586 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature