Skip to main content

Main menu

  • HOME
  • CONTENT
    • Early Release
    • Featured
    • Current Issue
    • Issue Archive
    • Collections
    • Podcast
  • ALERTS
  • FOR AUTHORS
    • Information for Authors
    • Fees
    • Journal Clubs
    • eLetters
    • Submit
  • EDITORIAL BOARD
  • ABOUT
    • Overview
    • Advertise
    • For the Media
    • Rights and Permissions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Feedback
  • SUBSCRIBE

User menu

  • Log in
  • My Cart

Search

  • Advanced search
Journal of Neuroscience
  • Log in
  • My Cart
Journal of Neuroscience

Advanced Search

Submit a Manuscript
  • HOME
  • CONTENT
    • Early Release
    • Featured
    • Current Issue
    • Issue Archive
    • Collections
    • Podcast
  • ALERTS
  • FOR AUTHORS
    • Information for Authors
    • Fees
    • Journal Clubs
    • eLetters
    • Submit
  • EDITORIAL BOARD
  • ABOUT
    • Overview
    • Advertise
    • For the Media
    • Rights and Permissions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Feedback
  • SUBSCRIBE
PreviousNext
Research Articles, Behavioral/Cognitive

The Representation of Two-Body Shapes in the Human Visual Cortex

Etienne Abassi and Liuba Papeo
Journal of Neuroscience 22 January 2020, 40 (4) 852-863; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1378-19.2019
Etienne Abassi
Institut des Sciences Cognitives—Marc Jeannerod, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), UMR5229, and Université Claude Bernard Lyon1, 69675 Bron, France
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Liuba Papeo
Institut des Sciences Cognitives—Marc Jeannerod, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), UMR5229, and Université Claude Bernard Lyon1, 69675 Bron, France
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Liuba Papeo
  • Article
  • Figures & Data
  • Info & Metrics
  • eLetters
  • PDF
Loading

Abstract

Human social nature has shaped visual perception. A signature of the relationship between vision and sociality is a particular visual sensitivity to social entities such as faces and bodies. We asked whether human vision also exhibits a special sensitivity to spatial relations that reliably correlate with social relations. In general, interacting people are more often situated face-to-face than back-to-back. Using functional MRI and behavioral measures in female and male human participants, we show that visual sensitivity to social stimuli extends to images including two bodies facing toward (vs away from) each other. In particular, the inferior lateral occipital cortex, which is involved in visual-object perception, is organized such that the inferior portion encodes the number of bodies (one vs two) and the superior portion is selectively sensitive to the spatial relation between bodies (facing vs nonfacing). Moreover, functionally localized, body-selective visual cortex responded to facing bodies more strongly than identical, but nonfacing, bodies. In this area, multivariate pattern analysis revealed an accurate representation of body dyads with sharpening of the representation of single-body postures in facing dyads, which demonstrates an effect of visual context on the perceptual analysis of a body. Finally, the cost of body inversion (upside-down rotation) on body recognition, a behavioral signature of a specialized mechanism for body perception, was larger for facing versus nonfacing dyads. Thus, spatial relations between multiple bodies are encoded in regions for body perception and affect the way in which bodies are processed.

SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Human social nature has shaped visual perception. Here, we show that human vision is not only attuned to socially relevant entities, such as bodies, but also to socially relevant spatial relations between those entities. Body-selective regions of visual cortex respond more strongly to multiple bodies that appear to be interacting (i.e., face-to-face), relative to unrelated bodies, and more accurately represent single body postures in interacting scenarios. Moreover, recognition of facing bodies is particularly susceptible to perturbation by upside-down rotation, indicative of a particular visual sensitivity to the canonical appearance of facing bodies. This encoding of relations between multiple bodies in areas for body-shape recognition suggests that the visual context in which a body is encountered deeply affects its perceptual analysis.

  • action understanding
  • body perception
  • fMRI
  • MVPA
  • object perception
  • social cognition
View Full Text
Back to top

In this issue

The Journal of Neuroscience: 40 (4)
Journal of Neuroscience
Vol. 40, Issue 4
22 Jan 2020
  • Table of Contents
  • Table of Contents (PDF)
  • About the Cover
  • Index by author
  • Advertising (PDF)
  • Ed Board (PDF)
Email

Thank you for sharing this Journal of Neuroscience article.

NOTE: We request your email address only to inform the recipient that it was you who recommended this article, and that it is not junk mail. We do not retain these email addresses.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
The Representation of Two-Body Shapes in the Human Visual Cortex
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from Journal of Neuroscience
(Your Name) thought you would be interested in this article in Journal of Neuroscience.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Print
View Full Page PDF
Citation Tools
The Representation of Two-Body Shapes in the Human Visual Cortex
Etienne Abassi, Liuba Papeo
Journal of Neuroscience 22 January 2020, 40 (4) 852-863; DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1378-19.2019

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Respond to this article
Request Permissions
Share
The Representation of Two-Body Shapes in the Human Visual Cortex
Etienne Abassi, Liuba Papeo
Journal of Neuroscience 22 January 2020, 40 (4) 852-863; DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1378-19.2019
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Jump to section

  • Article
    • Abstract
    • Introduction
    • Materials and Methods
    • Results
    • Discussion
    • Footnotes
    • References
  • Figures & Data
  • Info & Metrics
  • eLetters
  • PDF

Keywords

  • action understanding
  • body perception
  • fMRI
  • MVPA
  • object perception
  • social cognition

Responses to this article

Respond to this article

Jump to comment:

No eLetters have been published for this article.

Related Articles

Cited By...

More in this TOC Section

Research Articles

  • Rhythmic Entrainment Echoes in Auditory Perception
  • Multimodal Imaging for Validation and Optimization of Ion Channel-Based Chemogenetics in Nonhuman Primates
  • Cleavage of VAMP2/3 Affects Oligodendrocyte Lineage Development in the Developing Mouse Spinal Cord
Show more Research Articles

Behavioral/Cognitive

  • NMDA Receptors in the Basolateral Amygdala Complex Are Engaged for Pavlovian Fear Conditioning When an Animal’s Predictions about Danger Are in Error
  • Signatures of Electrical Stimulation Driven Network Interactions in the Human Limbic System
  • Dissociable Neural Mechanisms Underlie the Effects of Attention on Visual Appearance and Response Bias
Show more Behavioral/Cognitive
  • Home
  • Alerts
  • Visit Society for Neuroscience on Facebook
  • Follow Society for Neuroscience on Twitter
  • Follow Society for Neuroscience on LinkedIn
  • Visit Society for Neuroscience on Youtube
  • Follow our RSS feeds

Content

  • Early Release
  • Current Issue
  • Issue Archive
  • Collections

Information

  • For Authors
  • For Advertisers
  • For the Media
  • For Subscribers

About

  • About the Journal
  • Editorial Board
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
(JNeurosci logo)
(SfN logo)

Copyright © 2023 by the Society for Neuroscience.
JNeurosci Online ISSN: 1529-2401

The ideas and opinions expressed in JNeurosci do not necessarily reflect those of SfN or the JNeurosci Editorial Board. Publication of an advertisement or other product mention in JNeurosci should not be construed as an endorsement of the manufacturer’s claims. SfN does not assume any responsibility for any injury and/or damage to persons or property arising from or related to any use of any material contained in JNeurosci.