Perceptual history influences neural responses to face and body postures

We show that under natural viewing, the responses of cells in the temporal lobe of the macaque to the sight of static head and body postures is controlled by the sight of immediately preceding actions. Cells in the anterior part of the superior temporal sulcus responded vigorously to the sight of a face or body posture that followed a particular body action, but not when it followed other actions. The effective action or posture presented in isolation or in different sequences failed to produce a response. Our results demonstrate that cells in the temporal cortex could support the formation of expectations about impending behavior of others.