Mechanisms underlying category learning in the human ventral occipito-temporal cortex
The human ventral occipito-temporal cortex (VOTC) has evolved into specialized regions that process specific categories, such as words, tools, and animals. The formation of these areas is driven by bottom-up visual and top-down nonvisual experiences. However, the specific mechanisms through which to...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2024-02-01
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| Series: | NeuroImage |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811924000156 |
| _version_ | 1797334777262505984 |
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| author | Xiangqi Luo Mingyang Li Jiahong Zeng Zhiyun Dai Zhenjiang Cui Minhong Zhu Mengxin Tian Jiahao Wu Zaizhu Han |
| author_facet | Xiangqi Luo Mingyang Li Jiahong Zeng Zhiyun Dai Zhenjiang Cui Minhong Zhu Mengxin Tian Jiahao Wu Zaizhu Han |
| author_sort | Xiangqi Luo |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The human ventral occipito-temporal cortex (VOTC) has evolved into specialized regions that process specific categories, such as words, tools, and animals. The formation of these areas is driven by bottom-up visual and top-down nonvisual experiences. However, the specific mechanisms through which top-down nonvisual experiences modulate category-specific regions in the VOTC are still unknown. To address this question, we conducted a study in which participants were trained for approximately 13 h to associate three sets of novel meaningless figures with different top-down nonvisual features: the wordlike category with word features, the non-wordlike category with nonword features, and the visual familiarity condition with no nonvisual features. Pre- and post-training functional MRI (fMRI) experiments were used to measure brain activity during stimulus presentation. Our results revealed that training induced a categorical preference for the two training categories within the VOTC. Moreover, the locations of two training category-specific regions exhibited a notable overlap. Remarkably, within the overlapping category-specific region, training resulted in a dissociation in activation intensity and pattern between the two training categories. These findings provide important insights into how different nonvisual categorical information is encoded in the human VOTC. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-08T08:26:07Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-0cbe516aa340496aa2ba0e39cdad3d92 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1095-9572 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-08T08:26:07Z |
| publishDate | 2024-02-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | NeuroImage |
| spelling | doaj.art-0cbe516aa340496aa2ba0e39cdad3d922024-02-02T04:38:38ZengElsevierNeuroImage1095-95722024-02-01287120520Mechanisms underlying category learning in the human ventral occipito-temporal cortexXiangqi Luo0Mingyang Li1Jiahong Zeng2Zhiyun Dai3Zhenjiang Cui4Minhong Zhu5Mengxin Tian6Jiahao Wu7Zaizhu Han8State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, PR ChinaKey Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Ministry of Education, Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Biomedical Engineering & Instrument Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, PR ChinaState Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, PR ChinaState Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, PR ChinaState Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, PR ChinaState Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, PR ChinaState Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, PR ChinaState Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, PR ChinaState Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, PR China; Corresponding author at: State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, PR China.The human ventral occipito-temporal cortex (VOTC) has evolved into specialized regions that process specific categories, such as words, tools, and animals. The formation of these areas is driven by bottom-up visual and top-down nonvisual experiences. However, the specific mechanisms through which top-down nonvisual experiences modulate category-specific regions in the VOTC are still unknown. To address this question, we conducted a study in which participants were trained for approximately 13 h to associate three sets of novel meaningless figures with different top-down nonvisual features: the wordlike category with word features, the non-wordlike category with nonword features, and the visual familiarity condition with no nonvisual features. Pre- and post-training functional MRI (fMRI) experiments were used to measure brain activity during stimulus presentation. Our results revealed that training induced a categorical preference for the two training categories within the VOTC. Moreover, the locations of two training category-specific regions exhibited a notable overlap. Remarkably, within the overlapping category-specific region, training resulted in a dissociation in activation intensity and pattern between the two training categories. These findings provide important insights into how different nonvisual categorical information is encoded in the human VOTC.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811924000156VOTCCategory learningMeaningless stimulusNonvisual featuresCategory dissociation |
| spellingShingle | Xiangqi Luo Mingyang Li Jiahong Zeng Zhiyun Dai Zhenjiang Cui Minhong Zhu Mengxin Tian Jiahao Wu Zaizhu Han Mechanisms underlying category learning in the human ventral occipito-temporal cortex NeuroImage VOTC Category learning Meaningless stimulus Nonvisual features Category dissociation |
| title | Mechanisms underlying category learning in the human ventral occipito-temporal cortex |
| title_full | Mechanisms underlying category learning in the human ventral occipito-temporal cortex |
| title_fullStr | Mechanisms underlying category learning in the human ventral occipito-temporal cortex |
| title_full_unstemmed | Mechanisms underlying category learning in the human ventral occipito-temporal cortex |
| title_short | Mechanisms underlying category learning in the human ventral occipito-temporal cortex |
| title_sort | mechanisms underlying category learning in the human ventral occipito temporal cortex |
| topic | VOTC Category learning Meaningless stimulus Nonvisual features Category dissociation |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811924000156 |
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