Abstract:

Aims – Recent efforts have been made to understand how information processing in a particular brain region influences the processing occurring in other (distant) regions. Here we focused on how connectivity impacts the organization of information, by exploring two regions that show overlapping category-preferences for hands and tools (left Inferior Parietal Lobe – IPL and left Lateral Occipital Temporal Cortex – LOTC) and testing whether their afferent and efferent connections constrain processing distally in a category-specific way. Methods – We used a multivariate approach to examine how multivoxel categorical preferences for tools and hands in particular areas of the tool and hand networks, and across the brain, are correlated with functional connectivity emerging from these overlapping areas. Results – We focused on Ventral Temporal Cortex and showed that functional connectivity from IPL and LOTC to tool-preferring medial Fusiform Gyrus correlated more with tool-preferences than hand-preferences, while functional connectivity from IPL and LOTC to body-preferring Fusiform Body Area correlated more with hand-preferences than tool-preferences. We then inspected the whole brain by using a searchlight approach, and observed different connectivity constraints for tools and hands emerging from the two overlap areas. Conclusions – Our results show that functional connectivity from hand and tool overlap areas relate to category-preferences differently for tools and hands in different (distal) parts of the brain. We showed that despite the overlap in processing of tools and hands in IPL and LOTC, the connectivity constraints associated with these regions can be seen in a category-specific way throughout the brain.