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Cerebral Cortex Advance Access published online on June 8, 2005
Cerebral Cortex, doi:10.1093/cercor/bhi123
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© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oupjournals.org

Article

Two Distinct Neural Mechanisms for Category-selective Responses

Uta Noppeney 1*, Cathy J. Price 1, Will D. Penny 1, and Karl J. Friston 1

1 Wellcome Department of Imaging Neuroscience, University College London, 12 Queen Square, London WC1 N3BG, UK

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Uta Noppeney, E-mail: u.noppeney{at}fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk


  Abstract

The cognitive and neural mechanisms mediating category-selective responses in the human brain remain controversial. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging and effective connectivity analyses (Dynamic Causal Modelling), we investigated animal- and tool-selective responses by manipulating stimulus modality (pictures versus words) and task (implicit versus explicit semantic). We dissociated two distinct mechanisms that engender category selectivity: in the ventral occipito-temporal cortex, tool-selective responses were observed irrespective of task, greater for pictures and mediated by bottom-up effects. In a left temporo-parietal action system, tool-selective responses were observed irrespective of modality, greater for explicit semantic tasks and mediated by top-down modulation from the left prefrontal cortex. These distinct activation and connectivity patterns suggest that the two systems support different cognitive operations, with the ventral occipito-temporal regions engaged in structural processing and the dorsal visuo-motor system in strategic semantic processing. Consistent with current semantic theories, explicit semantic processing of tools might thus rely on reactivating their associated action representations via top-down modulation. In terms of neuronal mechanisms, the category selectivity may be mediated by distinct top-down (task-dependent) and bottom-up (stimulus-dependent) mechanisms.

Keywords: category selectivity; dynamic causal modelling; effective connectivity; functional imaging; semantic memory.
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