Forgot to include the figure!

Lots to unpack here! DM me if you’re interested in chatting about parietal areas involved in object use, category-specificity in the ventral stream, diaschisis, and lesion-symptom mapping! 8/8

We show that the descending portion of the left arcuate fasciculus connects parietal action areas with object representations in the ventral stream. We propose that structural connectivity outside the ventral stream shapes category-specificity within the ventral stream. 7/8

(3) Weaker responses to tools in the ventral stream was linked to reduced fiber tract integrity of the descending portion of the left arcuate fasciculus. (4) FA of the left arcuate was not related to the strength of famous place responses in the ventral stream. 6/8

4 cool findings: (1) lesions to left parietal areas involved in grasping and object use were associated with weaker responses to tools in the ventral stream. (2) lesions to these parietal areas had no effect upon responses to famous places in those same ventral stream voxels. 5/8

We call this method voxel-based lesion activity mapping (VLAM). 4/8

We then drew each participant’s lesion mask using a high-res T1 image and warped the mask to MNI space. Next, we performed a lesion-symptom mapping analysis where the “symptom” was the strength of responses for tools in the ventral stream. 3/8

We recruited over 100 participants with brain lesions in the pre-op phase of their neurosurgical care. They all took part in category localizer fMRI task. We localized tool-preferring voxels in the left medial fusiform gyrus and adjacent cortex (undamaged areas). 2/8