Novel Body-Selective Regions Responsive to Bodies Away from the Center of Gaze
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Authors
Zhao, Yu
Issue Date
2025
Type
Thesis
Language
en_US
Keywords
body perception , computational neuroscience , encoding model , fMRI , visual cortex organization
Alternative Title
Abstract
Processing of human bodies in naturalistic contexts is fundamental to social perception. Here, we report two previously undescribed body-selective regions in the human brain using 7T fMRI data from the Natural Scenes Dataset: the Ventromedial Body Area (VMBA) and the Medial Body Area (MBA). We localize these regions with functional contrasts and characterize their selectivity with encoding model analysis of BOLD responses to thousands of naturalistic images. Both regions are located near scene-selective regions, with VMBA near the Parahippocampal Place Area and MBA near the Retrosplenial Complex. Unlike known body-selective regions (e.g., the Extrastriate Body Area), which prefer single, foveated bodies, VMBA and MBA prefer multiple bodies away from the center of gaze. Thus, these regions are well situated to process the bodies we encounter in crowds, sports, and social gatherings. These findings advance our understanding of body representation, and suggest the existence of specialized pathways for processing bodies in different spatial contexts.