title: Person- and place-selective neural substrates for entity-specific semantic access.
abstract: Object-category has a pronounced effect on the representation of objects in higher level visual cortex. However, the influence of category on semantic/conceptual processes is less well characterized. In the present study, we conduct 2 fMRI experiments to investigate the semantic processing of information specific to individual people and places (entities). First, during picture presentation, we determined which brain regions show category-selective increases during access to entity-specific semantic information (i.e., nationality) in comparison to general-category discrimination (person vs. place). In the second experiment, we presented either words or pictures to assess the independence of entity-specific category-selective semantic representations from the processes used to access those representations. Convergent results from these 2 experiments show that brain regions exhibiting a category-selective increase during entity-specific semantic access are the same as those that show a supramodal (word/picture) category-selective response during the same task. These responses were different from classical "perceptual" category-selective responses and were evident in the medial precuneus for people and in the retrosplenial complex as well as anterior/superior sections of the transverse occipital sulcus and parahippocampal gyrus for places. These results reveal the pervasive influence of object-category in cortical organization, which extends to aspects of semantic knowledge arbitrarily related to physical/perceptual properties.
authors: Center for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento, Trento, Italy and Cognitive Neuropsychology Laboratory, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
authors: Scott L
authors: SL
authors: Fairhall
authors: Cognitive Neuropsychology Laboratory, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
authors: Stefano
authors: S
authors: Anzellotti
authors: Center for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento, Trento, Italy and.
authors: Silvia
authors: S
authors: Ubaldi
authors: Center for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento, Trento, Italy and Cognitive Neuropsychology Laboratory, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
authors: Alfonso
authors: A
authors: Caramazza
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D016014:Linear Models; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012660:Semantics; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000098:blood supply / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen
keywords: concepts; domain; face; semantic; unique entities