Neuroanatomical correlates of visual car expertise.

Sharon Gilaie-Dotan,Ryota Kanai,Assaf Harel,Geraint Rees,Shlomo Bentin

doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.05.017

Abstract

Expertise in non-visual domains such as musical performance is associated with differences in gray matter volume of particular regions of the human brain. Whether this is also the case for expertise in visual object recognition is unknown. Here we tested whether individual variability in the ability to recognize car models, from novice performance to high level of expertise, is associated with specific structural changes in gray matter volume. We found that inter-individual variability in expertise with cars was significantly and selectively correlated with gray matter volume in prefrontal cortex. Inter-individual differences in the recognition of airplanes, that none of the participants had expertise with, were correlated with structural variability of regions bordering the visual cortex. These results highlight the role of prefrontal regions outside the visual cortex in accessing and processing visual knowledge about objects from the domain of expertise and suggest that expertise in visual object recognition may entail structural changes in regions associated with semantic knowledge.

Highlights

Humans are generally very good at visually recognizing objects in the environment
Functional magnetic resonance imaging studies examining the neural basis of expertise in visual object recognition from this perspective have focused on the ventral visual cortex with particular interest in the fusiform gyrus, whose activity is associated with global processing (Bilalic et al, 2011b; Gauthier et al, 1999, 2000b; Gilaie-Dotan et al, 2010; van der Linden et al, 2008; Wong et al, 2009)
We investigated how acquired real-world expertise with a specific object category such as cars, affects cortical neural structure. To address this question we examined whether variability in the gray matter volume of different brain regions is reliably associated with the level of car recognition expertise

Summary

Introduction

Humans are generally very good at visually recognizing objects in the environment. This visual ability can be improved even more for objects in a particular domain by learning and accumulating experience. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies examining the neural basis of expertise in visual object recognition from this perspective have focused on the ventral visual cortex with particular interest in the fusiform gyrus, whose activity is associated with global processing (Bilalic et al, 2011b; Gauthier et al, 1999, 2000b; Gilaie-Dotan et al, 2010; van der Linden et al, 2008; Wong et al, 2009). Other areas across occipito-temporal cortex have been implicated in visual object

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