In high-level visual shape areas in the human brain, preference for inanimate objects is observed regardless of stimulation modality (visual/auditory/tactile) and subjects' visual experience (sighted/blind individuals), whereas preference for animate entities seems robust only in the visual modality. Here, we test a hypothesis explaining this effect: visual shape representations can be reliably activated through different sensory modalities when they are systematically related to action system representations. We studied fMRI activations in congenitally blind and sighted subjects listening to animal, object, and human sounds. We found that, in blind individuals, the typical anatomical location of the fusiform face area responds to human facial expression sounds, with a clear mapping between the facial motor action and the resulting face shape, but not to speech or animal sounds. Using face areas' activation in the blind subjects we could distinguish between specific facial expressions used in the study, but not between specific speech sounds. We conclude that auditory stimulation can reliably activate visual representations of those stimuli - inanimate or animate - for which shape and action computations are transparently related. Our study suggests that visual experience is not necessary for the development of functional preference for face-related information in the fusiform gyrus.

中文翻译：

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形状动作映射可调节盲人梭状回中的动画域声音的偏好

在人脑的高级视觉形状区域中，无论刺激方式（视觉/听觉/触觉）和受试者的视觉经验（有视力/盲人）如何，都观察到对无生命物体的偏爱，而对有生命物体的偏爱似乎仅在视觉形态。在这里，我们测试一个假设来解释这种影响：当视觉形状表示与动作系统表示系统地相关时，可以通过不同的感觉模态可靠地激活它们。我们在听动物，物体和人的声音的先天失明和视力正常的受试者中研究了功能磁共振成像激活。我们发现，在盲人中，梭形脸部区域的典型解剖位置会响应人的面部表情声音，并在面部运动动作和所产生的面部形状之间形成清晰的映射，但不包括语音或动物的声音。通过盲人受试者面部区域的激活，我们可以区分研究中使用的特定面部表情，而不是特定的语音。我们得出结论，听觉刺激可以可靠地激活形状和动作计算与透明相关的那些刺激（无生命或有生命）的视觉表示。我们的研究表明，视觉体验对于梭状回中面部相关信息的功能偏好的发展不是必需的。我们得出结论，听觉刺激可以可靠地激活形状和动作计算与透明相关的那些刺激（无生命或有生命）的视觉表示。我们的研究表明，视觉体验对于梭状回中面部相关信息的功能偏好的发展不是必需的。我们得出结论，听觉刺激可以可靠地激活形状和动作计算与透明相关的那些刺激（无生命或有生命）的视觉表示。我们的研究表明，视觉体验对于梭状回中面部相关信息的功能偏好的发展不是必需的。