Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/4284

Title

Representation of digits is not all just hand-waving

Author(s)

Berkovic, Samuel F.;  Jackson, Graeme D.;  Puce, Aina;  Syngeniotis, Ari;  Thompson, James C.;  Wheaton, Kylie J.

Abstract

Lip-reading and interpreting hand gestures help provide nonverbal information that aids speech comprehension in noisy environments and places emphasis on certain key utterances. In this fMRI study, we examined if viewing the similar semantic information presented by either finger movements or lip movements was processed by common or discrete brain regions. Subjects viewed videos of a hand conveying number information via finger movements and a face whose lip movements conveyed the same numerical information. Control stimuli consisted of meaningless finger and lip movements. Lip-reading numbers activated left posterior superior temporal sulcus (STS), while identifying numbers presented by fingers activated the intraparietal region (IPR) bilaterally. Conjunction analysis highlighted common activation in right IPR to numbers presented via fingers and lips. Our data indicate that left hemisphere decodes human movements conveying semantic information, although the specific brain region that is engaged may depend on the body part that is moving.

Publication type

Conference abstract

Research centre

Swinburne University of Technology. Brain Sciences Institute

Source

9th International Conference on Functional Mapping of the Human Brain, New York, New York, USA, 19-22 June 2003., Neuroimage (v. 19, No. 2)

Publication year

2003

Publisher

Academic Press

ISSN

1053-8119