The representation of bodies in high level visual, prefrontal and inferior parietal cortex varies with explicit vs. implicit expression perception

Abstract

Recent studies provided an increasingly detailed understanding of how visual objects like faces or bodies are categorized. What is less clear is whether a category attribute like the emotional expression influences category representation as is limited to extra-category selective areas and whether the coding of the expression in category and extra category areas is influenced by the task. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and multivariate methods, we measured BOLD responses while participants viewed whole body expressions and performed an explicit (emotion) and implicit (shape) recognition task. Our results show that the type of task can be decoded in EBA, VLPFC and IPL with higher activity for the explicit task condition in the first two areas and no evidence of emotion specificity processes in any of them. During explicit recognition of the body expression, category representation was strengthened while action related information was be suppressed. These results provide evidence that body representations in high level visual cortex and frontoparietal cortex are task sensitive and that body selective areas differentially contribute to expression representation based on their different anatomical connectivity.

A computational neuroethology perspective on body and expression perception

“…For example, increased activity in the FBA and EBA has been reported for emotion-naming compared to a color-naming task [28]. Using multivariate pattern analysis we found that the difference between explicit and implicit body expression processing can be decoded with high accuracy specifically in the EBA but not in FBA [120]. Similar strong task-driven variability in body representation has been reported with electroencephalography (EEG) [121].…”