2007; Willems et al. 2009), even during nonmotor visuospatial mental operations, for example, mental rotations (Lamm et al. 2001). Interestingly, previous brain imaging studies have not reported MOT-related
activations in the temporal cortex that would resemble our findings. The superior temporal gyrus and sulcus have been associated Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical with the attribution of animacy and mental states (Castelli et al. 2000). For instance, Schultz et al. (2004, 2005) used stimulus displays featuring abstract objects (geometrical shapes) that moved in an apparently self-propelled manner. The authors manipulated object “behavior” to give the impression of an “interaction” between two objects.
They found activations in the superior and middle temporal gyrus in association with a high degree of attributed intentionality. We found activation maxima similar Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical to those reported by Schultz and colleagues (our maxima: 54/−55/13, −57/−19/4, 42/−28/10; Schultz et al. 2004: 48/−44/12, −60/−56/4, −56/−30/4; Schultz et al. 2005: 39/−57/22; −60/−27/9). However, with the current buy GS-1101 experimental design, we cannot determine whether or not our participants Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical may have attributed animacy and/or intentionality to the moving objects. Thus, the significance of our findings remains to be resolved by future studies. In the following sections, we will focus our discussion on the activations in our area of interest, the frontal cortex. Dorsal and ventral premotor activations In accordance with our hypothesis, we found activation maxima in BA6 and BA44. We assume that these activations Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical reflect the involvement of the dorsal and ventral premotor cortices (PMd, PMv). The following sections will reflect on this assumption from anatomical and functional perspectives. Importantly, premotor activations would be in line with the idea of recruitment of prediction processes during MOT. However, alternative
Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical result interpretations will be addressed, namely processes of oculomotor control and visuospatial GBA3 attention as the source of DLFC activation. We will conclude with speculations regarding the functional implications of our findings. Functional boundaries of FEF versus PMd Based on our finding of activation in the DLFC, the important question arises whether this activation can be attributed to the PMd, possibly representing prediction processes as hypothesized, or whether it should be rather attributed to FEF involvement governing oculomotor control. As the PMd and the FEF are adjacent (or even overlapping) brain structures (Melamed and Larsen 1979; Petit et al. 1996; Schubotz and von Cramon 2001; Ptak and Schnider 2011), this question cannot be easily answered based on anatomical parameters. To tackle this issue, we implemented the FEF-L, as described above.