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Shared and Unique Neural Codes for Biological Motion Perception in Humans and Macaque Monkeys
Yuhui Cheng1,2,3, Yumeng Xin2,4, Xiqian Lu1,2
1State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Science and Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China.
Advanced Science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany)
|March 16, 2025
Summary
The brain processes biological motion (BM) similarly in humans and monkeys in early visual areas but shows specialization in later areas. This suggests evolutionary divergence in how we perceive motion across species.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Comparative Psychology
- Evolutionary Biology
Background:
- Biological motion (BM) recognition is crucial for survival and social interaction.
- Understanding the evolution of BM processing in the brain is key to deciphering visual perception.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how the human and monkey brains process within- and cross-species biological motion.
- To explore the evolutionary progression of biological motion processing pathways.
Main Methods:
- Examined brain activity in the lateral temporal areas of humans and monkeys.
- Monkeys and humans passively observed upright and inverted human and macaque BM stimuli.
- Analyzed neural responses in the middle temporal area (MT) and superior temporal sulcus (STS).
Main Results:
- In humans, the middle temporal area (hMT+) responded to both human and macaque BM, while the right posterior superior temporal sulcus (hpSTS) selectively responded to human BM.
- Increased feedforward connectivity from hMT+ to hpSTS was observed during human BM processing.
- Monkey MT processed BM from both species, but no STS subregion showed conspecific BM selectivity.
Conclusions:
- Upstream brain regions like MT may have conserved homologous functions for BM processing across species.
- Downstream regions like the STS show evolutionary differentiation and specialization, particularly for conspecific BM.
- These findings illuminate the shared and divergent neural pathways for processing biological motion across species during evolution.
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