Development of Tool Representations in the Dorsal and Ventral Visual Object Processing Pathways

作者：Kersey Alyssa J; Clark Tyia S; Lussier Courtney A; Mahon Bradford Z; Cantlon Jessica F^*

来源：Cerebral Cortex, 2016, 26(7): 3135-3145.

DOI：10.1093/cercor/bhv140

• category-specificity
• conceptual processing
• fMRI
• parietal cortex
• tools

Tools represent a special class of objects, because they are processed across both the dorsal and ventral visual object processing pathways. Three core regions are known to be involved in tool processing: the left posterior middle temporal gyrus, the medial fusiform gyrus (bilaterally), and the left inferior parietal lobule. A critical and relatively unexplored issue concerns whether, in development, tool preferences emerge at the same time and to a similar degree across all regions of the tool-processing network. To test this issue, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure the neural amplitude, peak location, and the dispersion of tool-related neural responses in the youngest sample of children tested to date in this domain (ages 4-8 years). We show that children recruit overlapping regions of the adult tool-processing network and also exhibit similar patterns of co-activation across the network to adults. The amplitude and co-activation data show that the core components of the tool-processing network are established by age 4. Our findings on the distributions of peak location and dispersion of activation indicate that the tool network undergoes refinement between ages 4 and 8 years.

• 出版日期2016-7