@article {4502, title = {Parts-based representations of perceived face movements in the superior temporal sulcus}, journal = {Human Brain Mapping}, volume = {40}, year = {2019}, month = {02/2019}, pages = {2499 - 2510}, abstract = {

Facial motion is a primary source of social information about other humans. Prior fMRI studies have identified regions of the superior temporal sulcus (STS) that respond specifically to perceived face movements (termed fSTS), but little is known about the nature of motion representations in these regions. Here we use fMRI and multivoxel pattern analysis to characterize the representational content of the fSTS. Participants viewed a set of specific eye and mouth movements, as well as combined eye and mouth movements. Our results demonstrate that fSTS response patterns contain information about face movements, including subtle distinctions between types of eye and mouth movements. These representations generalize across the actor performing the movement, and across small differences in visual position. Critically, patterns of response to combined movements could be well predicted by linear combinations of responses to individual eye and mouth movements, pointing to a parts-based representation of complex face movements. These results indicate that the fSTS plays an intermediate role in the process of inferring social content from visually perceived face movements, containing a representation that is sufficiently abstract to generalize across low-level visual details, but still tied to the kinematics of face part movements.

}, issn = {1065-9471}, doi = {10.1002/hbm.v40.810.1002/hbm.24540}, url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/10970193/40/8}, author = {Ben Deen and Rebecca Saxe} } @article {2568, title = {Organization of high-level visual cortex in human infants}, journal = {Nature Communications}, year = {2017}, month = {01/2017}, abstract = {

How much of the structure of the human mind and brain is already specified at birth, and how much arises from experience? In this article, we consider the test case of extrastriate visual cortex, where a highly systematic functional organization is present in virtually every normal adult, including regions preferring behaviourally significant stimulus categories, such as faces, bodies, and scenes. Novel methods were developed to scan awake infants with fMRI, while they viewed multiple categories of visual stimuli. Here we report that the visual cortex of 4{\textendash}6-month-old infants contains regions that respond preferentially to abstract categories (faces and scenes), with a spatial organization similar to adults. However, precise response profiles and patterns of activity across multiple visual categories differ between infants and adults. These results demonstrate that the large-scale organization of category preferences in visual cortex is adult-like within a few months after birth, but is subsequently refined through development.

}, doi = {10.1038/ncomms13995}, url = {http://www.nature.com/doifinder/10.1038/ncomms13995}, author = {Ben Deen and Richardson, Hilary and Dilks, Daniel D. and Takahashi, Atsushi and Keil, Boris and Lawrence Wald and Nancy Kanwisher and Rebecca Saxe} } @article {1751, title = {Functional organization of social perception and cognition in the superior temporal sulcus}, journal = {Cerebral Cortex}, volume = {25}, year = {2015}, month = {11/2015}, pages = {4596-4609}, abstract = {

The superior temporal sulcus (STS) is considered a hub for social perception and cognition, including the perception of faces and human motion, as well as understanding others{\textquoteright} actions, mental states, and language. However, the functional organization of the STS remains debated: Is this broad region composed of multiple functionally distinct modules, each specialized for a different process, or are STS subregions multifunctional, contributing to multiple processes? Is the STS spatially organized, and if so, what are the dominant features of this organization? We address these questions by measuring STS responses to a range of social and linguistic stimuli in the same set of human participants, using fMRI. We find a number of STS subregions that respond selectively to certain types of social input, organized along a posterior-to-anterior axis. We also identify regions of overlapping response to multiple contrasts, including regions responsive to both language and theory of mind, faces and voices, and faces and biological motion. Thus, the human STS contains both relatively domain-specific areas, and regions that respond to multiple types of social information.

}, doi = { 10.1093/cercor/bhv111}, url = {http://cercor.oxfordjournals.org/content/25/11/4596.full}, author = {Ben Deen and Kami Koldewyn and Nancy Kanwisher and Rebecca Saxe} } @article {1749, title = {Functional organization of the human superior temporal sulcus}, number = { Poster Number: 4380 }, year = {2015}, month = {6/2015}, address = {Honolulu, HI}, abstract = {

The human superior temporal sulcus (STS) has been implicated in a broad range of social perceptual and cognitive processes, including the perception of faces, biological motion, and vocal sounds, and the understanding of language and mental states. However, little is known about the overall functional organization of these responses. Does the STS contain distinct, specialized regions for processing different types of social information? Or is cortex in the STS largely multifunctional, with each region engaged in multiple different computations (Hein, 2008)? Because prior work has largely studied these processes independently, this question remains unanswered. Here, we first identify distinct functional subregions of the STS, and then examine their response to a broad range of social stimuli.

}, url = {https://ww4.aievolution.com/hbm1501/index.cfm?do=abs.viewAbs\&abs=3635}, author = {Ben Deen and Nancy Kanwisher and Rebecca Saxe} } @article {1750, title = {Parts-based representations of perceived face movements in the superior temporal sulcus}, year = {2015}, month = {11/19/2015}, address = {Chicago, IL}, url = {https://www.sfn.org/~/media/SfN/Documents/Annual\%20Meeting/FinalProgram/NS2015/Daily\%20Books\%202015/AM15Monday.ashx}, author = {Ben Deen and Rebecca Saxe} } @article {1260, title = {Using fNIRS to Map Functional Specificity in the Infant Brain: An fROI Approach}, year = {2015}, author = {Lindsey J Powell and Ben Deen and Li Guo and Rebecca Saxe} } @article {940, title = {Exploring the functional organization of the superior temporal sulcus with a broad set of naturalistic stimuli}, year = {2014}, author = {Ben Deen and Nancy Kanwisher and Rebecca Saxe} }