An fMRI study of visual geometric shapes processing

作者：Liuqing Wei, Xueying Li, Lina Huang, Yuansheng Liu, Luming Hu, Wenbin Shen, Qingguo Ding, Pei Liang · 发表于：Frontiers in Neuroscience · 年份：2023 · DOI：10.3389/fnins.2023.1087488 · 被引用次数：12 · 研究领域：Aesthetic Perception and Analysis、Visual perception and processing mechanisms、Image Retrieval and Classification Techniques

Cross-modal correspondence has been consistently evidenced between shapes and other sensory attributes. Especially, the curvature of shapes may arouse the affective account, which may contribute to understanding the mechanism of cross-modal integration. Hence, the current study used the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technique to examine brain activity's specificity when people view circular and angular shapes. The circular shapes consisted of a circle and an ellipse, while the angular shapes consisted of a triangle and a star. Results show that the brain areas activated by circular shapes mainly involved the sub-occipital lobe, fusiform gyrus, sub and middle occipital gyrus, and cerebellar VI. The brain areas activated by angular shapes mainly involve the cuneus, middle occipital gyrus, lingual gyrus, and calcarine gyrus. The brain activation patterns of circular shapes did not differ significantly from those of angular shapes. Such a null finding was unexpected when previous cross-modal correspondence of shape curvature was considered. The different brain regions detected by circular and angular shapes and the potential explanations were discussed in the paper.