title: The Role of Parieto-Occipital Junction in the Interaction between Dorsal and Ventral Streams in Disparity-Defined Near and Far Space Processing.
abstract: Neuropsychological and functional MRI data suggest that two functionally and anatomically dissociable streams of visual processing exist: a ventral perception-related stream and a dorsal action-related stream. However, relatively little is known about how the two streams interact in the intact brain during the production of adaptive behavior. Using functional MRI and a virtual three-dimensional paradigm, we aimed at examining whether the parieto-occipital junction (POJ) acts as an interface for the integration and processing of information between the dorsal and ventral streams in the near and far space processing. Virtual reality three-dimensional near and far space was defined by manipulating binocular disparity, with -68.76 arcmin crossed disparity for near space and +68.76 arcmin uncrossed disparity for near space. Our results showed that the POJ and bilateral superior occipital gyrus (SOG) showed relative increased activity when responded to targets presented in the near space than in the far space, which was independent of the retinotopic and perceived sizes of target. Furthermore, the POJ showed the enhanced functional connectivity with both the dorsal and ventral streams during the far space processing irrespective of target sizes, supporting that the POJ acts as an interface between the dorsal and ventral streams in disparity-defined near and far space processing. In contrast, the bilateral SOG showed the enhanced functional connectivity only with the ventral stream if retinotopic sizes of targets in the near and far spaces were matched, which suggested there was a functional dissociation between the POJ and bilateral SOG.
authors.affiliation: Center for Studies of Psychological Application and School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, China.|Department of Psychology, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, China.
authors.forename: Aijun
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Center for Studies of Psychological Application and School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, China.
authors.forename: You
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, China.
authors.forename: Ming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Center for Studies of Psychological Application and School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, China.|Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, China.|Epilepsy Center, Guangdong 999 Brain Hospital, Guangzhou 510510, China.
authors.forename: Qi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology; D009778:Occipital Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D009928:Organ Specificity; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011603:Psychophysiology; D065855:Spatial Processing; D015357:Vision Disparity / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult