Functional Subdomains within Scene-Selective Cortex: Parahippocampal Place Area, Retrosplenial Complex, and Occipital Place Area.

Abstract

Visual scene perception is a critical ability to survive in the real world. It is therefore reasonable to assume that the human brain contains neural circuitry selective for visual scenes. Here we show that responses in three scene-selective areas-identified in previous studies-carry information about many object and action categories encountered in daily life. We identify two subregions in each area: one that is selective for categories of man-made objects, and another that is selective for vehicles and locomotion-related action categories that appear in dynamic scenes. This consistent functional subdivision may reflect an anatomical organization into two processing streams, one biased toward static stimuli and one biased toward dynamic stimuli.