Abstract
Visual field maps have been found in all lobes of the brain. Multiple maps in association cortex are in or near regions associated with cognitive tasks that are not explicitly visual. Understanding the relationship between visually-defined areas and cognitively-defined areas will clarify our understanding of association cortex. Using fMRI, we investigated two pairs of visually defined and cognitively defined areas in individual subjects: (1) a visual field map in the inferior precentral sulcus (iPCS), and Broca's area, and (2) a visually responsive region in the temporoparietal junction (TPJ; Horiguchi et al., 2016, doi:10.1093/cercor/bhu226) and an area involved in theory of mind (ToM, Saxe & Kanwisher, 2003, doi:10.1016/S1053-8119(03)00230-1). Using an attention-demanding retinotopic mapping task (Mackey et al., 2016, doi:10.1101/083493), we defined visual field maps in iPCS and visually responsive regions in TPJ. In the same subjects, Broca's area was defined by a language localizer (words > jabberwocky sentences; Fedorenko et al.,2012, doi:10.1016/j.cub.2012.09.011), and a ToM area in TPJ from a story localizer (ToM stories > descriptions of pictures; Saxe & Kanwisher, 2003). We projected the contrast patterns onto the cortical surface and compared their locations to the previously defined visual areas. We found that Broca's area was left-lateralized, on or near the pars opercularis and/or par triangularis, and just anterior to, but not overlapping (< 2% overlap), iPCS maps. Second, we found that ToM activation patterns in the TPJ were more posterior and superior, closer to the angular gyrus, compared to the visually defined TPJ region, which was closer to the planum temporale, again with no overlap. The individual subject analysis shows that the positions of the visual areas in association cortex are systematically related to, but not overlapping with, regions defined by cognitive tasks.
Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2017