title: Continuous representation of human portraits and natural scenery in human ventral temporal cortex: evidence from functional magnetic resonance imaging.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has become a powerful tool for tracking human brain activity in vivo. This technique is mainly based on blood oxygenation level dependence (BOLD) contrast. In the present study, we employed this newly developed technique to characterize the neural representations of human portraits and natural sceneries in the human brain.
  
  
  METHODS
  Nine subjects were scanned with a 1.5 T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner using gradient-recalled echo and echo-planar imaging (GRE-EPI) pulse sequence while they were visually presented with 3 types of white-black photographs: natural scenery, human portraits, and scrambled nonsense pictures. Multiple linear regression was used to identify brain regions responding preferentially to each type of stimulus and common regions for both human portraits and natural scenery. The relative contributions of each type of stimulus to activation in these regions were examined using linear combinations of a general linear test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Multiple linear regression analysis revealed two distinct but adjacent regions in both sides of the ventral temporal cortex. The medial region preferentially responded to natural scenery, whereas the lateral one preferentially responded to the human portraits. The general linear test further revealed a distribution gradient such that a change from portraits to scenes shifted areas of activation from lateral to medial.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The boundary between portrait-associated and scenery-associated areas is not as clear as previously demonstrated. The representations of portraits and scenes in ventral temporal cortex appear to be continuous and overlap.
authors.affiliation: Molecular Imaging Research Centre, First Affiliated Hospital, Shantou University School of Medicine, Shantou 515041, China. Xiaozw@vip.163.com
authors.forename: Zhuang-wei
authors.initials: ZW
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.forename: Chong-yu
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Xiao-jing
authors.initials: XJ
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.forename: Fang-mei
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Wei-duan
authors.initials: WD
authors.lastname: Zhuang
authors.forename: Jun-xiong
authors.initials: JX
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Xu-Chu
authors.initials: XC
authors.lastname: Weng
authors.forename: Ren-hua
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Wu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D012044:Regression Analysis; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000033:anatomy & histology*