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Supramodal Shape Representation in the Human Brain

View ORCID ProfileYangwen Xu, Lorenzo Vignali, Federica Sigismondi, Davide Crepaldi, Roberto Bottini, Olivier Collignon
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.11.22.517472
Yangwen Xu
1Center for Mind/Brain Sciences (CIMeC), University of Trento, Trento, Italy
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  • For correspondence: yangwen.xu@unitn.it
Lorenzo Vignali
1Center for Mind/Brain Sciences (CIMeC), University of Trento, Trento, Italy
2International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA), Trieste, Italy
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Federica Sigismondi
1Center for Mind/Brain Sciences (CIMeC), University of Trento, Trento, Italy
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Davide Crepaldi
2International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA), Trieste, Italy
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Roberto Bottini
1Center for Mind/Brain Sciences (CIMeC), University of Trento, Trento, Italy
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Olivier Collignon
1Center for Mind/Brain Sciences (CIMeC), University of Trento, Trento, Italy
3Psychological Sciences Research Institute (IPSY) and Institute of NeuroScience (IoNS), University of Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
4School of Health Sciences, HES-SO Valais-Wallis, The Sense Innovation and Research Center, Lausanne and Sion, Switzerland
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  • For correspondence: yangwen.xu@unitn.it
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Abstract

We can sense an object’s shape by vision or touch. Previous studies suggested that the inferolateral occipitotemporal cortex (ILOTC) implements supramodal shape representations as it responds more to seeing or touching objects than shapeless textures. However, such activation in the anterior portion of the ventral visual pathway could be due to the conceptual representation of an object or visual imagery triggered by touching an object. We addressed these possibilities by directly comparing shape and conceptual representations in early blind (who lack visual experience/imagery) and sighted participants. We found that bilateral ILOTC in both groups showed stronger activation during a shape verification task than during a conceptual verification task made on the names of the same manmade objects. Moreover, the distributed activity in the ILOTC encoded shape similarity but not conceptual association among objects. Besides the ILOTC, we also found shape representation in both groups’ bilateral ventral premotor cortices and intraparietal sulcus, a frontoparietal circuit relating to object grasping and haptic processing. In contrast, the conceptual verification task activated both groups’ left perisylvian brain network relating to language processing, and, interestingly, the cuneus in early blind participants only. The ILOTC had stronger functional connectivity to frontoparietal circuit than to the left perisylvian network, forming a modular structure specialized in shape representation. Our results conclusively support that the ILOTC selectively implements shape representation independently of visual experience, and this unique functionality likely comes from its privileged connection to the frontoparietal haptic circuit.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

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The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY 4.0 International license.
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Posted November 23, 2022.
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Supramodal Shape Representation in the Human Brain
Yangwen Xu, Lorenzo Vignali, Federica Sigismondi, Davide Crepaldi, Roberto Bottini, Olivier Collignon
bioRxiv 2022.11.22.517472; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.11.22.517472
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Supramodal Shape Representation in the Human Brain
Yangwen Xu, Lorenzo Vignali, Federica Sigismondi, Davide Crepaldi, Roberto Bottini, Olivier Collignon
bioRxiv 2022.11.22.517472; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.11.22.517472

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