Processing communicative facial and vocal cues in the superior temporal sulcus

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Science
• Social Cognition

Background:

• Facial and vocal cues are vital for social information, including emotions, attention, and speech content.
• The face-responsive region of the posterior superior temporal sulcus (fSTS) also responds to vocal sounds.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the functional role of the fSTS and broader STS in processing social cues.
• To measure brain responses to face movements, vocal sounds, and hand movements using fMRI.

Main Methods:

• Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to measure brain activity.
• Participants were exposed to visual face actions, vocal sounds, and hand movements.
• Region of interest (ROI) and independent component analysis (ICA) were employed.

Main Results:

• The fSTS responded broadly to visual and auditory face actions, both communicative and noncommunicative.
• Responses to hand movements were minimal, suggesting specialization for face-related actions.
• Spatial patterns in fSTS decoded communicative from noncommunicative face actions across modalities.
• A distinct region in the middle STS showed selective auditory responses to speech.

Conclusions:

• The fSTS is crucial for analyzing audiovisual face actions, not general human actions.
• The STS contains separate processing streams for audiovisual face analysis and auditory speech.
• fSTS sensitivity to abstract social dimensions suggests a role in social perception.