Dynamic patterns make the premotor cortex interested in objects: influence of stimulus and task revealed by fMRI

Abstract

Research in monkey and man indicates that the ventrolateral premotor cortex (PMv) underlies not only the preparation of manual movements, but also the perceptual representation of pragmatic object properties. However, visual stimuli without any pragmatic meaning were recently found to elicit selective PMv responses if they were subjected to a perceivable pattern of change. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate if perceptual representations in the PMv might apply not only to pragmatic, but also to dynamic stimulus properties. To this end, a sequential figure matching task that required the processing of dynamic features was contrasted with a non-figure control task (Experiment 1) and an individual figure matching task (Experiment 2). In order to control for potential influences of stimulus properties that might be associated with pragmatic attributes, different types of abstract visual stimuli were employed. The experiments yielded two major findings: if their dynamic properties are attended, then abstract 2D visual figures are sufficient to trigger activation within premotor areas involved in hand-object interaction. Moreover, these premotor activations are independent from stimulus properties that might relate to pragmatic features. The results imply that the PMv is engaged in the processing of stimuli that are usually or actually embedded within either a pragmatic or a dynamic context. 

Decomposing Components of Task Preparation with Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

“…Furthermore, a recent study by Schumacher and D'Esposito (2002) reported a dissociation of extrastriate visual areas and a fronto-parietal network related to stimulus encoding and response selection. The ventral premotor cortex has been shown to be involved in the sensory processing of objects (Schubotz & von Cramon, 2002). We assume that the premotor cortex activation reflects the pragmatic features of the attended cue (Schubotz & von Cramon, 2002;Fadiga, Fogassi, Gallese, & Rizzolatti, 2000).…”

Functional–anatomical concepts of human premotor cortex: evidence from fMRI and PET studies

“…3. Example for the serial prediction task paradigm (from Schubotz and von Cramon, 2002b, reproduced by permission of the publisher). A sequence of stimuli is presented either in the visual or in the auditory domain.…”

“…For instance, PM activation is found when serial prediction is contrasted with an equally difficult serial match-to-sample task (Figs. 4C and 4D) (Schubotz and von Cramon, 2002b). The relevance of a predictive task for PM engagement may also be reflected by the absence of PM activation in a motion observation task that does not require prediction (Perani, 2001).…”

“…In a certain sense, however, one could argue that small geometrical objects are reminiscent of graspable objects. Therefore, we systematically investigated the influences of stimulus features in two fMRI studies, which showed that PM did not covary with the size (or virtual "graspability") of presented object stimuli (Schubotz and von Cramon, 2002b). Examples for the stimulus material and results of the second experiment in this publication are shown in Figs.…”

Visual mismatch negativity: An electrophysiological index of temporal-context-based prediction in vision

“…- 56-al., 2009;Mazza et al, 2005;Stagg et al, 2004;Tales & Butler, 2006;Tales, Haworth, Wilkock, Newton, & Butler, 2008;Tales, Newton, Troscianko, & Butler, 1999） ，サ イズ（Kimura, Katayama, & Murohashi, Blakemore, Wolpert, & Frith, 2000;Brunia, 1999;Gomez, Vaquero, & Vaquero-Marrufo, 2004;Kveraga, Ghuman, et al, 2007; Schröger, & Schubotz, 2008;Schubotz, 2007;Schubotz & von Cramon, 2001a, 2001b, 2002a, 2002b, 2002cWolfensteller, Schubotz, & von Cramon, 2004 …”