Article: Bryan, P.B., J.B. Julian, and R.A. Epstein. “Rectilinear Edge Selectivity Is Insufficient to Explain the Category Selectivity of the Parahippocampal Place Area.” Front. Hum. Neurosci. 10, no. 137 (2016): 1–12. DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2016.00137

Assignment: Read the paper and answer the questions below.

1. Describe the main conclusion of the paper in one sentence.

The selectivity of the parahippocampal place area (PPA) to scenes is not due to the low level stimulus of rectilinear edges, but it is sensitive to basic shapes with right angles.

1. Explain the main point of Figure 4 in one sentence.

The activation representations are not discriminable between high and low rectilinearity, but are for stimulus categories.

1. Describe the stimulus conditions you would need and the key prediction you would make to test the hypothesis that the FFA contains information about the curviness of faces.

I would modify face images to construct two classes of low curviness and high curviness faces. Or, I would create non face images that match the curviness of the face images. I would compare the discrimination index of the activations for these two stimulus classes.