Interaction envelope: Local spatial representations of objects at all scales in scene-selective regions

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Neuroimaging
• Perception

Background:

• Cortical regions show category selectivity (e.g., parahippocampal place area for scenes, lateral occipital complex for objects).
• Recent research explores perceptual properties calculated by these regions, particularly object size in scene-selective areas.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the sensitivity of scene-selective regions to spatial information at any object size.
• To determine if these regions process the "interaction envelope" (space traversed to interact with an object).

Main Methods:

• Two functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiments were conducted.
• Participants viewed object images varying in interaction envelope and physical size.
• Activity in perceptual regions of interest was analyzed, controlling for confounding properties.

Main Results:

• Scene-selective regions demonstrated sensitivity to object interaction envelope for small, manipulable objects.
• This sensitivity was independent of the object's real-world size and the task performed.
• Small-scale entity regions remained selective for stimulus physical size.

Conclusions:

• Scene-selective regions are not limited to processing large scenes but calculate local spatial information for objects of all sizes.
• These findings suggest a more general role for these regions in spatial computation beyond traditional scene processing.