Neural components of topographical representation

AUTOR(ES)

Aguirre, Geoffrey K.

FONTE

The National Academy of Sciences

RESUMO

Studies of patients with focal brain damage suggest that topographical representation is subserved by dissociable neural subcomponents. This article offers a condensed review of the literature of “topographical disorientation” and describes several functional MRI studies designed to test hypotheses generated by that review. Three hypotheses are considered: (i) The parahippocampal cortex is critically involved in the acquisition of exocentric spatial information in humans; (ii) separable, posterior, dorsal, and ventral cortical regions subserve the perception and long term representation of position and identity, respectively, of landmarks; and (iii) there is a distinct area of the ventral occipitotemporal cortex that responds maximally to building stimuli and may play a role in the perception of salient landmarks. We conclude with a discussion of the inferential limitations of neuroimaging and lesion studies. It is proposed that combining these two approaches allows for inferences regarding the computational involvement of a neuroanatomical substrate in a given cognitive process although neither method can strictly support this conclusion alone.

Documentos Relacionados

• The neural representation of postural control in humans
• Neural systems underlying learning and representation of global motion
• Neural representation of time in cortico-basal ganglia circuits
• Aging Affects the Neural Representation of Speed in Macaque Area MT
• Neural Correlates of Pavlovian Conditioning in Components of the Neural Network Supporting Ciliary Locomotion in Hermissenda