Article: Downing, P.E., Y. Jiang, et al. “A Cortical Area Selective for Visual Processing of the Human Body.” Science 293 (2001): 2470–73. DOI: 0.1126/science.1063414
Assignment: Read the assigned article carefully and think about it, then provide short answers to the questions below. Be clear and concise, points will be taken off for unnecessary words.
- Give three pieces of evidence that the selectivity for the EBA does not simply reflect the presence of particular low-level visual features.
- The authors state that they identified the EBA in each subject with a localizer scan. What is a localizer scan and why is it important?
- Do the findings in this paper show that the EBA meets all the criteria for a distinct cortical area? Explain.
- What do you want to know next about the EBA and how might you test it with fMRI?
a) State a specific hypothesis that you could test with fMRI (one sentence).
b) What conditions would you need to include to test your hypothesis? Describe each briefly.
c) What, specifically, would you expect to find empirically in your conditions if your hypothesis is true?
