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Distinct auditory and visual tool regions with multisensory response properties in human parietal cortex
Tanja Kassuba1, Mark A Pinsk1, Sabine Kastner2
1Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.
Progress in Neurobiology
|July 25, 2020
Summary
The human brain processes tool information through separate visual and auditory networks in the parietal cortex. These networks, while distinct, show some capacity for integrating information across senses for complex object understanding.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Human Brain Imaging
Background:
- The left parietal cortex is crucial for sophisticated tool use in humans.
- Understanding how tool information is processed across different senses remains unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare auditory and visual tool-specific brain activations.
- To investigate the relationship between tool-specific networks, sensory response properties, and connectivity.
- To probe multisensory integration in tool processing within the human brain.
Main Methods:
- Utilized functional MRI (fMRI) and diffusion-weighted MRI in healthy human subjects.
- Identified distinct auditory and visual tool networks.
- Analyzed uni- and multisensory response properties and functional/structural connectivity.
Main Results:
- Identified separate auditory tool network (left anterior inferior parietal cortex, posterior lateral sulcus, inferior precentral sulcus) and visual tool network (left anterior inferior parietal cortex, inferior temporal gyrus).
- Auditory and visual networks showed modality preference but also exhibited multisensory response properties.
- Nodes in parietal and prefrontal cortex may integrate cross-sensory tool information.
Conclusions:
- Two largely separate tool-processing networks exist for visual and auditory modalities.
- The human parietal cortex plays a critical role in complex object processing through sensory diversification.
- Further research into cross-modal integration in tool representation is warranted.
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