title: Neural adaptation in pSTS correlates with perceptual aftereffects to biological motion and with autistic traits.
abstract: The adaptive nature of biological motion perception has been documented in behavioral studies, with research showing that prolonged viewing of an action can bias judgments of subsequent actions towards the opposite of its attributes. However, the neural mechanisms underlying action adaptation aftereffects remain unknown. We examined adaptation-induced changes in brain responses to an ambiguous action after adapting to walking or running actions within two bilateral regions of interest: 1) human middle temporal area (hMT+), a lower-level motion-sensitive region of cortex, and 2) posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS), a higher-level action-selective area. We found a significant correlation between neural adaptation strength in right pSTS and perceptual aftereffects to biological motion measured behaviorally, but not in hMT+. The magnitude of neural adaptation in right pSTS was also strongly correlated with individual differences in the degree of autistic traits. Participants with more autistic traits exhibited less adaptation-induced modulations of brain responses in right pSTS and correspondingly weaker perceptual aftereffects. These results suggest a direct link between perceptual aftereffects and adaptation of neural populations in right pSTS after prolonged viewing of a biological motion stimulus, and highlight the potential importance of this brain region for understanding differences in social-cognitive processing along the autistic spectrum.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles 90095, USA. Electronic address: sthurman@ucla.edu.
authors.forename: Steven M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Thurman
authors.affiliation: School of Psychological Sciences and Monash Institute of Cognitive and Clinical Neurosciences, Monash University, Clayton 3800, Vic, Australia.
authors.forename: Jeroen J A
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: van Boxtel
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles 90095, USA.
authors.forename: Martin M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Monti
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles 90095, USA.
authors.forename: Jeffrey N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Chiang
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles 90095, USA; Department of Statistics, University of California, Los Angeles, 90095, USA. Electronic address: hongjing@ucla.edu.
authors.forename: Hongjing
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lu
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological / Q000502:physiology*; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008124:Locomotion / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D009039:Motion Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology*; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology*; D065813:Wernicke Area / Q000503:physiopathology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Action aftereffects; Autism; Human actions; Perceptual adaptation; fMRI adaptation