title: Brain areas involved in perception of biological motion.
abstract: These experiments use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to reveal neural activity uniquely associated with perception of biological motion. We isolated brain areas activated during the viewing of point-light figures, then compared those areas to regions known to be involved in coherent-motion perception and kinetic-boundary perception. Coherent motion activated a region matching previous reports of human MT/MST complex located on the temporo-parieto-occipital junction. Kinetic boundaries activated a region posterior and adjacent to human MT previously identified as the kinetic-occipital (KO) region or the lateral-occipital (LO) complex. The pattern of activation during viewing of biological motion was located within a small region on the ventral bank of the occipital extent of the superior-temporal sulcus (STS). This region is located lateral and anterior to human MT/MST, and anterior to KO. Among our observers, we localized this region more frequently in the right hemisphere than in the left. This was true regardless of whether the point-light figures were presented in the right or left hemifield. A small region in the medial cerebellum was also active when observers viewed biological-motion sequences. Consistent with earlier neuroimaging and single-unit studies, this pattern of results points to the existence of neural mechanisms specialized for analysis of the kinematics defining biological motion.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37240, USA. e.grossman@vanderbilt.edu
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Grossman
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Donnelly
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Price
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Pickens
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Morgan
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Neighbor
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Blake
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007700:Kinetics; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009039:Motion Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D009778:Occipital Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000502:physiology