A region in the posterior inferior temporal gyrus (pITG) is thought to be specialized for processing Arabic numerals, but fMRI studies that compared passive viewing of numerals to other character types (e.g., letters and novel characters) have not found evidence of numeral preference in the pITG. However, recent studies showed that the engagement of the pITG is modulated by attention and task contexts, suggesting that passive viewing paradigms may be ill-suited for examining numeral specialization in the pITG. It is possible, however, that even if the strengths of responses to different category types are similar, the distributed response patterns (i.e., neural representations) in a candidate numeral-preferring pITG region ("pITG-numerals") may reveal categorical distinctions, even during passive viewing. Using representational similarity analyses with three datasets that share the same task paradigm and stimulus sets (total N = 88), we tested whether the neural representations of digits, letters, and novel characters in pITG-numerals were organized according to visual form and/or conceptual categories (e.g., familiar versus novel, numbers versus others). Small-scale frequentist and Bayesian meta-analyses of our dataset-specific findings revealed that the organization of neural representations in pITG-numerals is unlikely to be described by differences in abstract shape, but can be described by a categorical "digits versus letters" distinction, or even a "digits versus others" distinction (suggesting greater numeral sensitivity). Evidence of greater numeral sensitivity during passive viewing suggest that pITG-numerals is likely part of a neural pathway that has been developed for automatic processing objects with potential numerical relevance. Given that numerals and letters do not differ categorically in terms of shape, categorical distinction in pITG-numerals during passive viewing must reflect ontogenetic differentiation of symbol set representations based on repeated usage of numbers and letters in differing task contexts.

中文翻译：

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“下时间数字区”在被动查看期间将数字与其他字符类别区分开来：代表性相似性分析

颞下回 (pITG) 中的一个区域被认为专门用于处理阿拉伯数字，但将数字的被动查看与其他字符类型（例如，字母和新字符）进行比较的 fMRI 研究并未发现数字偏好的证据PITG。然而，最近的研究表明 pITG 的参与受注意力和任务环境的调节，这表明被动观察范式可能不适合检查 pITG 中的数字专业化。然而，即使对不同类别类型的反应强度相似，候选数字优先 pITG 区域（“pITG-数字”）中的分布式反应模式（即神经表示）也可能揭示类别差异，即使在被动观看期间。使用具有相同任务范式和刺激集（总 N = 88）的三个数据集的表征相似性分析，我们测试了 pITG 数字中数字、字母和新字符的神经表征是否根据视觉形式和/或概念类别（例如，熟悉与新颖，数字与其他）。对我们特定于数据集的发现进行的小规模频率论者和贝叶斯元分析表明，pITG 数字中神经表征的组织不太可能通过抽象形状的差异来描述，但可以通过分类的“数字与字母”区别来描述，甚至是“数字与其他”的区别（表明对数字的敏感性更高）。被动观看期间数字敏感性更高的证据表明，pITG 数字可能是为自动处理具有潜在数字相关性的对象而开发的神经通路的一部分。鉴于数字和字母在形状上没有绝对差异，被动查看期间 pITG 数字的分类区别必须反映基于在不同任务上下文中重复使用数字和字母的符号集表示的个体发育差异。