Extracting social signals from the visual image of bodies
Inez M. Greven, Paul E. Downing, Richard Ramsey · 2015
A critical aspect of everyday social interactions is understanding who other people are and how we might expect them to behave. To date, neuroimaging studies have focussed on characterising the function of segregated patches of cortex along the ventral visual stream during person perception. It remains largely unknown, however, how such “body patches” functionally couple with other brain regions. Using fMRI and functional connectivity analyses, we investigated the hypothesis that person perception involves a distributed neural circuit, extending beyond the ventral visual stream. Silhouettes of neutral (slim) and trait-implying (muscular or overweight) bodies were presented to participants. When observing bodies that give rise to a social inference compared to neutral bodies, univariate analyses showed greater engagement of extrastriate and fusiform body areas (EBA, FBA). Additionally, there was stronger functional coupling between right FBA and bilateral EBA. The results suggest that when extracting social information from another’s body, there is increased connectivity within the person perception network. These findings underscore the importance of considering functional interactions within an extended neural network when investigating functionality of the ventral visual stream.