Title:Different Attentional Modulation in the Visual Word Form Area and Parahippocampal Place Area
VOLUME: 1 ISSUE: 2
Author(s):Geqi Qi, Bin Wang, Jinglong Wu, Satoshi Takahashi, Seiichiro Ohno and Susumu Kanazawa
Affiliation:Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology, Okayama University, Okayama, Japan.
Keywords:Chinese character, extrastriate cortex, fMRI, house pictograph, parahippocampal place area, visual word form area.
Abstract:Many studies have reported that blood oxygen level–dependent (BOLD) activity in object-selective extrastriate
areas is enhanced by visual attention. However, only a few studies have compared the effects of attention between these
areas. In this study, we examined the influence of small and big noise level on BOLD responses in the word-selective region
(visual word form area, VWFA) and house-selective region (parahippocampal place area, PPA) during Chinese character
and house pictograph discrimination task. Our results showed that the BOLD response in the VWFA and PPA are
modulated differently by visual attention. More specifically, the selective response in the VWFA is more easily affected
by attentional demand than that in the PPA. These results may suggest that visual attention is distributed differently along
the extrastiate cortex.
