Human brain activity related to the perception of spatial features of objects

The role of the parietal cortex in visuospatial analysis of object was investigated by cerebral blood flow measurements in seven subjects using positron emission tomography. Data were acquired while subjects performed a matching task requiring the discrimination of simultaneously presented objects based on one of their spatial properties. Three properties were studied separately during three scanning conditions repeated twice: surface orientation, principal axis orientation, and size. Scans were also obtained during a sensorimotor control task (similar visual stimulation, same motor action, voluntary saccades toward each object) as well as during rest (no stimulation, eyes closed). Compared to rest, the three property matching tasks showed the same pattern of activation: the whole occipital lobe, the right intraparietal sulcus (IPS), and the right occipitotemporal (OT) junction. Compared to the control condition, only right IPS and OT junction were significantly activated during discrimination of the spatial properties. The IPS focus was located between the superior parietal lobule and the angular gyrus, and the OT activation overlapped the posterior part of the inferior temporal gyrus and the middle occipital gyrus. These results indicate that discrimination of spatial attributes requires the activation of both the parietal and the temporal cortices of the right hemisphere and provide further evidence that the IPS plays a critical role in visuospatial analysis of objects. (C) 1999 Academic Press.