Article: Downing, P.E., Y. Jiang, et al. “A Cortical Area Selective for Visual Processing of the Human Body.” Science 293 (2001): 2470–73. DOI: 0.1126/science.1063414

Assignment: Read the assigned article carefully and think about it, then provide short answers to the questions below. Be clear and concise, points will be taken off for unnecessary words.

  1. Give three pieces of evidence that the selectivity for the EBA does not simply reflect the presence of particular low-level visual features.
    1. The selectivity is also measured with line drawing, which do not have the low level features. Stick figures and silhouettes have the same response.
    2. Response is also compared with animals.
    3. The response is also compared with inanimate objects that have rigid parts and joints, such as scissors.
  2. The authors state that they identified the EBA in each subject with a localizer scan. What is a localizer scan and why is it important?
    1. This study uses fMRI. It detects relative neural activity and found that a small region of the brain is more activity selectively for the human body.
  3. Do the findings in this paper show that the EBA meets all the criteria for a distinct cortical area? Explain.
    1. Not enough information is known. We need a distinct function, connectivity to other areas, and sometimes cytoarchitecture. This study isolates a specific function but there could be other functions. We also do not know about its connectivity to other areas.
  4. What do you want to know next about the EBA and how might you test it with fMRI?
    1. I want to identify other areas of the brain that the EBA might be connected to. This can be accomplished by showing various inputs and finding correlations between EBA activity and the activity of other areas.

a) State a specific hypothesis that you could test with fMRI (one sentence).

Does area x connect to the EBA.

b) What conditions would you need to include to test your hypothesis? Describe each briefly.

We need to be able to selectively activate and deactivate the EBA, ideally to various levels and not just binary.

c) What, specifically, would you expect to find empirically in your conditions if your hypothesis is true?

There should be a correlation between the activity of region x and the EBA.