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The Journal of Neuroscience, December 19, 2007, 27(51):13921-13925; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4001-07.2007

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Brief Communications
Nature versus Nurture in Ventral Visual Cortex: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study of Twins

Thad A. Polk,¹ Joonkoo Park,¹ Mason R. Smith,¹ and Denise C. Park²

¹Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, and ²The Beckman Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801

Correspondence should be addressed to Thad A. Polk, Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, 530 Church Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109. Email: tpolk{at}umich.edu

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we estimated neural activity in twins to study genetic influences on the cortical response to categories of visual stimuli (faces, places, and pseudowords) that are known to elicit distinct patterns of activity in ventral visual cortex. The neural activity patterns in monozygotic twins were significantly more similar than in dizygotic twins for the face and place stimuli, but there was no effect of zygosity for pseudowords (or chairs, a control category). These results demonstrate that genetics play a significant role in determining the cortical response to faces and places, but play a significantly smaller role (if any) in the response to orthographic stimuli.

Key words: ventral visual cortex; functional MRI; face perception; place perception; word perception; twins

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Received Aug. 31, 2007; revised Oct. 31, 2007; accepted Nov. 2, 2007.

Correspondence should be addressed to Thad A. Polk, Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, 530 Church Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109. Email: tpolk{at}umich.edu

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