Viewpoint-Specific Scene Representations in Human Parahippocampal Cortex

• Published in: Neuron (Cambridge, Mass.) Vol. 37; no. 5; pp. 865 - 876
• Main Authors: Epstein, Russell, Graham, Kim S., Downing, Paul E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 06-03-2003; Elsevier Limited
• Subjects: Adult; Analysis of Variance; Brain; Evoked Potentials - physiology; Experiments; Female; Geometry; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods; Male; Medical imaging; NMR; Nuclear magnetic resonance; Parahippocampal Gyrus - physiology; Photic Stimulation - methods; Visual Cortex - physiology
• ISSN: 0896-6273; 1097-4199
• DOI: 10.1016/S0896-6273(03)00117-X

The “parahippocampal place area” (PPA) responds more strongly in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to scenes than to faces, objects, or other visual stimuli. We used an event-related fMRI adaptation paradigm to test whether the PPA represents scenes in a viewpoint-specific or viewpoint-invariant manner. The PPA responded just as strongly to viewpoint changes that preserved intrinsic scene geometry as it did to complete scene changes, but less strongly to object changes within the scene. In contrast, lateral occipital cortex responded more strongly to object changes than to spatial changes. These results demonstrate that scene processing in the PPA is viewpoint specific and suggest that the PPA represents the relationship between the observer and the surfaces that define local space.