Distinct representations of spatial and categorical relationships across human scene-selective cortex.

ABSTRACT: We represent the locations of places (e.g., the coffee shop on 10th Street vs. the coffee shop on Peachtree Street) so that we can use them as landmarks to orient ourselves while navigating large-scale environments. While several neuroimaging studies have argued that the parahippocampal place area (PPA) represents such navigationally relevant information, evidence from other studies suggests otherwise, leaving this issue unresolved. Here we hypothesize that the PPA is, in fact, not well suited to recognize specific landmarks in the environment (e.g., the coffee shop on 10th Street), but rather is involved in recognizing the general category membership of places (e.g., a coffee shop, regardless of its location). Using fMRI multivoxel pattern analysis, we directly test this hypothesis. If th

SUBMITTER: Persichetti AS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6800382 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature