Carole Peyrin

The sensory-motor specificity of taxonomic and thematic conceptual relations: a behavioral and fMRI study.

Previous behavioral data suggest that the salience of taxonomic (e.g., hammer-saw) and thematic (e.g., hammer-nail) conceptual relations depends on object categories. Furthermore, taxonomic and thematic relations would be differentially grounded in the sensory-motor system. Using a picture matching task, we asked adult participants to identify taxonomic and thematic relations for non-manipulable and manipulable natural and artifact targets (e.g., animals, fruit, tools and vehicles, respectively) inside and outside a 3 T MR scanner. Behavioral data indicated that taxonomic relations are identified faster in natural objects while thematic relations are processed faster in artifacts, particularly manipulable ones (e.g., tools). Neuroimaging findings revealed that taxonomic processing specifically activates the bilateral visual areas (cuneus, BA 18), particularly for non-manipulable natural objects (e.g., animals). On the contrary, thematic processing specifically recruited a bilateral temporo-parietal network including the inferior parietal lobules (IPL, BA 40) and middle temporal gyri (MTG, BA 39/21/22). Left IPL and MTG activation was stronger for manipulable than for non-manipulable artifacts (e.g., tools vs. vehicles) during thematic processing. Right IPL and MTG activation was greater for both artifacts compared to natural objects during thematic processing (manipulable and non-manipulable ones, e.g., tools and vehicles). While taxonomic relations would selectively rely on perceptual similarity processing, thematic relations would specifically activate visuo-motor regions involved in action and space processing. In line with embodied views of concepts, our findings show that taxonomic and thematic conceptual relations are based on different sensory-motor processes. It suggests that they may have different roles in concept formation and processing depending on object categories.

The neural substrates and timing of top-down processes during coarse-to-fine categorization of visual scenes: A combined fmri and erp study

Spatial frequencies in an image influence visual analysis across a distributed, hierarchically organized brain network. Low spatial frequency (LSF) information may rapidly reach high-order areas to allow an initial coarse parsing of the visual scene, which could then be “retroinjected” through feedback into lower level visual areas to guide finer analysis on the basis of high spatial frequency (HSF). To test this “coarse-to-fine” processing scheme and to identify its neural substrates in the human brain, we presented sequences of two spatial-frequency-filtered scenes in rapid succession (LSF followed by HSF or vice versa) during fMRI and ERPs in the same participants. We show that for low-to-high sequences (but not for high-to-low sequences), LSF produces a first increase of activity in prefrontal and temporo-parietal areas, followed by enhanced responses to HSF in primary visual cortex. This pattern is consistent with retroactive influences on low-level areas that process HSF after initial activation of higher order areas by LSF.

Cerebral regions and hemispheric specialization for processing spatial frequencies during natural scene recognition. An event-related fMRI study.

It has been suggested that visual scene recognition is mainly based on spatial frequency (Fourier) analysis of the image. This analysis starts with processing low spatial frequencies (LSF), followed by processing high spatial frequencies (HSF). Within the framework of the spatial frequency analysis, the right/left hemisphere would be predominantly involved in LSF/HSF analysis, respectively. The aim of this event-related fMRI study was to evaluate neural correlates and hemispheric specialization of spatial frequency analysis during recognition of nonfiltered (NF) and filtered, either in LSF or HSF, natural scenes. Comparing LSF or NF to HSF scene recognition, significant activation was obtained within right anterior temporal cortex and right parahippocampal gyrus. As these regions are known to be involved in scene processing, we interpret this result as suggesting that scene recognition is mainly based on LSF extraction and analysis. When LSF scene was compared to HSF scene recognition, supplementary activation was obtained within the right inferior parietal lobule that likely reflects attentional modulation on spatial frequency processing. A direct interhemispheric comparison for each particular band of spatial frequencies highlighted predominance within the early visual areas (such as the middle occipital gyrus) to the right for LSF processing and to the left for HSF processing. This result provides supplementary evidence for hemispheric specialization at early levels of visual analysis when spatial frequencies are processed.

Polysyllabic pseudo-word processing in reading and lexical decision: Converging evidence from behavioral data, connectionist simulations and functional MRI

The cognitive mechanisms involved in polysyllabic pseudo-word processing -- and their neurobiological correlates -- were studied through the analysis of length effects on French words and pseudo-words in reading and lexical decision. Connectionist simulations conducted on the ACV98 network paralleled the behavioral data in showing a strong length effect on naming latencies for pseudo-words only and the absence of length effect for both words and pseudo-words in lexical decision. Length effects in reading were characterized at the neurobiological level by a significant and specific activity increase for pseudo-words as compared to words in the right lingual gyrus (BA 19), the left superior parietal lobule and precuneus (BA7), the left middle temporal gyrus (BA21) and the left cerebellum. The behavioral results suggest that polysyllabic pseudo-word reading mainly relies on an analytic procedure. At the biological level, additional activations in visual and visual attentional brain areas during long pseudo-word reading emphasize the role of visual and visual attentional processes in pseudo-word reading. The present findings place important constraints on theories of reading in suggesting the involvement of a serial mechanism based on visual attentional processing in pseudo-word reading.

Superior parietal lobule dysfunction in a homogeneous group of dyslexic children with a visual attention span disorder

A visual attention (VA) span disorder has been reported in dyslexic children as potentially responsible for their poor reading outcome. The purpose of the current paper was to identify the cerebral correlates of this VA span disorder. For this purpose, 12 French dyslexic children with severe reading and VA span disorders and 12 age-matched control children were engaged in a categorisation task under fMRI. Two flanked and isolated conditions were designed which both involved multiple-element simultaneous visual processing but taxed visual attention differently. For skilled readers, flanked stimuli processing activated a large bilateral cortical network comprising the superior and inferior parietal cortex, the inferior temporal cortex, the striate and extrastriate visual cortex, the middle frontal cortex and the anterior cingulate cortex while the less attention-demanding task of isolated stimuli only activated the inferior occipito-temporal cortex bilaterally. With respect to controls, the dyslexic children showed significantly reduced activation within bilateral parietal and temporal areas during flanked processing, but no difference during the isolated condition. The neural correlates of the processes involved in attention-demanding multi-element processing tasks were more specifically addressed by contrasting the flanked and the isolated conditions. This contrast elicited activation of the left precuneus/superior parietal lobule in the controls, but not in the dyslexic children. These findings provide new insights on the role of parietal regions, in particular the left superior parietal lobule, in the visual attention span and in developmental dyslexia.

The neural bases of spatial frequency processing during scene perception

Theories on visual perception agree that scenes are processed in terms of spatial frequencies. Low spatial frequencies (LSF) carry coarse information whereas high spatial frequencies (HSF) carry fine details of the scene. However, how and where spatial frequencies are processed within the brain remain unresolved questions. The present review addresses these issues and aims to identify the cerebral regions differentially involved in low and high spatial frequency processing, and to clarify their attributes during scene perception. Results from a number of behavioral and neuroimaging studies suggest that spatial frequency processing is lateralized in both hemispheres, with the right and left hemispheres predominantly involved in the categorization of LSF and HSF scenes, respectively. There is also evidence that spatial frequency processing is retinotopically mapped in the visual cortex. HSF scenes (as opposed to LSF) activate occipital areas in relation to foveal representations, while categorization of LSF scenes (as opposed to HSF) activates occipital areas in relation to more peripheral representations. Concomitantly, a number of studies have demonstrated that LSF information may reach high-order areas rapidly, allowing an initial coarse parsing of the visual scene, which could then be sent back through feedback into the occipito-temporal cortex to guide finer HSF-based analysis. Finally, the review addresses spatial frequency processing within scene-selective regions areas of the occipito-temporal cortex.

Hemispheric specialization of human inferior temporal cortex during coarse-to-fine and fine-to-coarse analysis of natural visual scenes

Recent models of visual recognition have suggested that perceptual analysis may start with a parallel extraction of different spatial frequencies (SF), using a preferential coarse-to-fine (low-to-high SF) sequence of processing. A rapid extraction of low spatial frequency (LSF) information may thus provide an initial and crude parsing of the visual scene, subsequently refined by slow but more detailed high spatial frequency (HSF) information. However, the sequence of SF analysis could be flexible, a high-to-low (HtL) being sometimes preferred to a low-to-high (LtH) SF sequence depending on task demands. Furthermore, it has also been suggested that the right vs. left hemisphere might be differentially specialized in LSF vs. HSF analysis, respectively. By manipulating the temporal succession of LSF and HSF stimuli, the present fMRI study investigated whether such hemispheric specialization may underlie the flexible use of different time-course in SF analysis. Participants performed a matching task between two successive images of natural scenes (LSF or HSF) that were displayed either in an LtH (LSF scene presented first and HSF scene second) or in a reverse HtL sequence. A direct inter-hemispheric comparison of the neural responses evoked by each SF sequence revealed greater activations within the right occipito-temporal cortex for the LtH sequence and within the left occipito-temporal cortex for the HtL sequence. These fMRI results suggest that the hemisphere preferentially engaged during the sequential processing of different SF might be determined by the initial SF-band appearing in this sequence, and that both a coarse-to-fine and fine-to-coarse analysis might independently take place in the two hemispheres.

Role of the superior parietal lobules in letter-identity processing within strings: FMRI evidence from skilled and dyslexicreaders

Traditionally, the ventral occipito-temporal (vOT) area, but not the superior parietal lobules (SPLs), is thought as belonging to the neural system of visual word recognition. However, some dyslexic children who exhibit a visual attention span disorder - i.e. poor multi-element parallel processing - further show reduced SPLs activation when engaged in visual multi-element categorization tasks. We investigated whether these parietal regions further contribute to letter-identity processing within strings. Adult skilled readers and dyslexic participants with a visual attention span disorder were administered a letter-string comparison task under fMRI. Dyslexic adults were less accurate than skilled readers to detect letter identity substitutions within strings. In skilled readers, letter identity differs related to enhanced activation of the left vOT. However, specific neural responses were further found in the superior and inferior parietal regions, including the SPLs bilaterally. Two brain regions that are specifically related to substituted letter detection, the left SPL and the left vOT, were less activated in dyslexic participants. These findings suggest that the left SPL, like the left vOT, may contribute to letter string processing.

Effect of temporal constraints on hemispheric asymmetries during spatial frequency processing

Studies on functional hemispheric asymmetries have suggested that the right vs. left hemisphere should be predominantly involved in low vs. high spatial frequency (SF) analysis, respectively. By manipulating exposure duration of filtered natural scene images, we examined whether the temporal characteristics of SF analysis (i.e., the temporal precedence of low on high spatial frequencies) may interfere with hemispheric specialization. Results showed the classical hemispheric specialization pattern for brief exposure duration and a trend to a right hemisphere advantage irrespective of the SF content for longer exposure duration. The present study suggests that the hemispheric specialization pattern for visual information processing should be considered as a dynamic system, wherein the superiority of one hemisphere over the other could change according to the level of temporal constraints: the higher the temporal constraints of the task, the more the hemispheres are specialized in SF processing.

Pre-orthographic character string processing and parietal cortex: A role for visual attention in reading?

The visual front-end of reading is most often associated with orthographic processing. The left ventral occipito-temporal cortex seems to be preferentially tuned for letter string and word processing. In contrast, little is known of the mechanisms responsible for pre-orthographic processing: the processing of character strings regardless of character type. While the superior parietal lobule has been shown to be involved in multiple letter processing, further data is necessary to extend these results to non-letter characters. The purpose of this study is to identify the neural correlates of pre-orthographic character string processing independently of character type. Fourteen skilled adult readers carried out multiple and single element visual categorization tasks with alphanumeric (AN) and non-alphanumeric (nAN) characters under fMRI. The role of parietal cortex in multiple element processing was further probed with a priori defined anatomical regions of interest (ROIs). Participants activated posterior parietal cortex more strongly for multiple than single element processing. ROI analyses showed that bilateral SPL/BA7 was more strongly activated for multiple than single element processing, regardless of character type. In contrast, no multiple element specific activity was found in inferior parietal lobules. These results suggests that parietal mechanisms are involved in pre-orthographic character string processing. We argue that in general, attentional mechanisms are involved in visual word recognition, as an early step of word visual analysis.