title: Functional responses and structural connections of cortical areas for processing faces and voices in the superior temporal sulcus.
abstract: It was the aim of this study to delineate the areas along the right superior temporal sulcus (STS) for processing of faces, voices, and face-voice integration using established functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) localizers and to assess their structural connectivity profile with diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). We combined this approach with an fMRI adaptation design during which the participants judged emotions in facial expressions and prosody and demonstrated response habituation in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) which occurred irrespective of the sensory modality. These functional data were in line with DTI findings showing separable fiber projections of the three different STS modules converging in the OFC which run through the external capsule for the voice area, through the dorsal superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF) for the face area and through the ventral SLF for the audiovisual integration area. The OFC was structurally connected with the supplementary motor area (SMA) and activation in these two areas was correlated with faster stimulus evaluation during repetition priming. Based on these structural and functional properties, we propose that the OFC is part of the extended system for perception of emotional information in faces and voices and constitutes a neural interface linking sensory areas with brain regions implicated in generation of behavioral responses.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Psychiatry, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany. Thomas.Ethofer@med.uni-tuebingen.de
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ethofer
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bretscher
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wiethoff
authors.forename: Jeanne
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bisch
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schlipf
authors.forename: Dirk
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wildgruber
authors.forename: Benjamin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kreifelts
mesh_terms: D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000502:physiology*; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D014831:Voice; D055815:Young Adult