Article Figures & Data
Figures
- Figure 1.
Stimuli used in Experiment 1. N, L, O, FN, FL, NN, and NL were presented.
- Figure 2.
Group analysis in Experiment 1. Significant activations were found in the right and left inferior temporal gyri when numbers were contrasted with false numbers and with all other presented stimuli. Further, we found significant activations in the left fusiform gyrus when letters were contrasted with false letters and all other presented stimuli. p < 0.05(FWE), cluster extend = 20 voxels.
- Figure 3.
ROI analysis in Experiment 1. A, Examples of the individual subjects' number-selective responses in the left and the right hemisphere. Results are based on the first run (contrasting numbers with all other stimuli, p < 0.001(uncorrected)) and presented on the respective individual brain anatomy. B, All of the individual participants' NFA (blue) and LFA (red) clusters superimposed on each other. Purple marks the overlap of the two areas. Images were created using MRIcroGL (http://www.mccauslandcenter.sc.edu/mricrogl/). C, Comparison of the activations (p < 0.005(uncorrected)) induced when contrasting numbers with all other stimuli between the three experimental runs (first run in blue, second run in yellow, third run in green, overlap in intermediate colors). D, ROI results. The right and left NFA respond stronger to numbers than to all other characters; conversely, the left LFA responds stronger to letters than to all other stimuli. RH, right hemisphere; LH, left hemisphere. *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001 (Fisher LSD).
- Figure 4.
ROI analysis in Experiment 2. The right and left NFA respond stronger to single-digit numbers than to false numbers and letters. *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001 (Fisher LSD).
- Figure 5.
A, Visualization of the impact of spatial resolution, localized shimming, and smoothing on the global mean BOLD signal intensity and tSNR. The mean BOLD response is increased in the neighborhood of the NFA (approximate NFA location is marked by black circles) by the higher spatial resolution. The tSNR is generally higher with the lower resolution; however, this effect is not as severe near the NFA. Smoothing increases the tSNR, particularly in the high-resolution images, so that, after preprocessing the tSNR near the NFA is largest in the high-resolution images. Images were created using Caret (Van Essen et al., 2001). B, Example of the position of the recorded volume (yellow box) and of the area where the localized shimming was performed (green box).
- Figure 6.
Influence of spatial resolution, localized shimming, and smoothing on the mean BOLD signal intensity (A) and tSNR (B) within the NFA. The mean BOLD signal is largest in the high-resolution images. Before smoothing, the tSNR is similar in the high-resolution and the lower-resolution images with and without localized shimming. After spatial smoothing was applied, the tSNR is largest in the high-resolution images. LR, lower resolution (3*3*3 mm3); LRS, lower resolution with localized shimming; HRS, high resolution (1*1*1 mm3) with localized shimming. *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001 (Fisher LSD).
