中华医学杂志(英文版)
中華醫學雜誌(英文版)
중화의학잡지(영문판)
CHINESE MEDICAL JOURNAL
2004年
9期
1309-1312
,共4页
肖壮伟%林冲宇%罗小景%黄芳梅%庄伟端%李俊雄%翁旭初%吴仁华
肖壯偉%林遲宇%囉小景%黃芳梅%莊偉耑%李俊雄%翁旭初%吳仁華
초장위%림충우%라소경%황방매%장위단%리준웅%옹욱초%오인화
functional magnetic resonance imaging%brain%cognition%representation
Background Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has become a powerful tool for tracking human brain activity in vivo. This technique is mainly based on blood oxygenation level dependence (BOLD) contrast. In the present study, we employed this newly developed technique to characterize the neural representations of human portraits and natural sceneries in the human brain.Methods Nine subjects were scanned with a 1.5 T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner using gradient-recalled echo and echo-planar imaging (GRE-EPI) pulse sequence while they were visually presented with 3 types of white-black photographs: natural scenery, human portraits, and scrambled nonsense pictures. Multiple linear regression was used to identify brain regions responding preferentially to each type of stimulus and common regions for both human portraits and natural scenery. The relative contributions of each type of stimulus to activation in these regions were examined using linear combinations of a general linear test.Results Multiple linear regression analysis revealed two distinct but adjacent regions in both sides of the ventral temporal cortex. The medial region preferentially responded to natural scenery, whereas the lateral one preferentially responded to the human portraits. The general linear test further revealed a distribution gradient such that a change from portraits to scenes shifted areas of activation from lateral to medial.Conclusions The boundary between portrait-associated and scenery-associated areas is not as clear as previously demonstrated. The representations of portraits and scenes in ventral temporal cortex appear to be continuous and overlap.