Different neural systems for the recognition of animals and man-made tools.
Using positron emission tomography, we mapped brain activity in normal volunteers during the recognition of visual stimuli representing living (animals) and non-living (artefacts) entities. The subjects had to decide whether pairs of visual stimuli were different representations of the same object, or different objects. Animal recognition was associated with activations in the inferior temporo-occipital areas, bilaterally, whereas artefact recognition engaged a predominantly left hemispheric network, involving the left dorsolateral frontal cortex. These findings, which concur with clinical observations in neurological patients, provide in vivo evidence for a fractionation of the neural substrates of semantic knowledge in man.
Institute of Neuroscience and Bioimaging, CNR University of Milan, Italy.
D
D
Perani
S F
SF
Cappa
V
V
Bettinardi
S
S
Bressi
M
M
Gorno-Tempini
M
M
Matarrese
F
F
Fazio
D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D009778:Occipital Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012660:Semantics; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D014055:Tomography, Emission-Computed; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*