Lateral occipitotemporal cortex encodes perceptual components of social actions rather than abstract representations of sociality

• Published in: NeuroImage (Orlando, Fla.) Vol. 202; p. 116153
• Main Authors: Wurm, Moritz F., Caramazza, Alfonso
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 15.11.2019; Elsevier Limited
• Subjects: Action observation; Brain research; Experiments; Functional magnetic resonance imaging; Medical imaging; MVPA; Neuroimaging; Object manipulation; Person perception; RSA; Social interaction; Specialization; RSA; Action observation; Object manipulation; Social interaction; Person perception; MVPA
• ISSN: 1053-8119; 1095-9572
• DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.116153

Neuroimaging studies suggest that areas in the lateral occipitotemporal cortex (LOTC) play an important role in the perception of social actions. However, it is unclear what precisely about social actions these areas represent: perceptual features that may be indicative of social actions – such as the presence of persons in a scene, their orientation toward each other, and in particular the directedness of action movements toward persons or other targets – or more abstract representations that capture whether an action is meant to be social. In two fMRI experiments, we used representational similarity analysis (RSA) to test whether LOTC is sensitive to perceptual action components important for social interpretation and/or more general representations of sociality (Experiment 1) and implied person-directedness (Experiment 2). We found that LOTC is sensitive to perceptual action components (person presence, person orientation, and action directedness toward different types of recipients). By contrast, more general levels of sociality and implied person-directedness were not captured by LOTC. Our findings suggest that regions in LOTC provide the perceptual basis for social action interpretation but challenge accounts that posit specialization at more general levels sensitive to social actions and sociality as such. We propose that the interpretation of an action – in terms of sociality or other intentional aspects – arises from the interaction of multiple areas in processing relevant action components in a situation-dependent manner. •Using fMRI-based RSA, we investigate the representation of observed social actions.•Lateral occipitotemporal cortex (LOTC) encodes protosocial aspects but not sociality.•Specifically, LOTC encodes the directedness of actions toward persons, objects, etc.•LOTC also encodes the presence of persons and their orientation toward each other.•Findings suggest that LOTC provides the basis for social action interpretation.