Natural scenes are characterized by individual objects as well as by global scene properties such as spatial layout. Functional neuroimaging research has shown that this distinction between object and scene processing is one of the main organizing principles of human high-level visual cortex. For example, object-selective regions, including the lateral occipital complex (LOC), were shown to represent object content (but not scene layout), while scene-selective regions, including the occipital place area (OPA), were shown to represent scene layout (but not object content). Causal evidence for a double dissociation between LOC and OPA in representing objects and scenes is currently limited, however. One TMS experiment, conducted in a relatively small sample (N=13), reported an interaction between LOC and OPA stimulation and object and scene recognition performance (Dilks et al., 2013). Here, we present a high-powered pre-registered replication of this study (N=72, including male and female human participants), using group-average fMRI coordinates to target LOC and OPA. Results revealed unambiguous evidence for a double dissociation between LOC and OPA: Relative to vertex stimulation, TMS over LOC selectively impaired the recognition of objects, while TMS over OPA selectively impaired the recognition of scenes. Furthermore, we found that these effects were stable over time and consistent across individual objects and scenes. These results show that LOC and OPA can be reliably and selectively targeted with TMS, even when defined based on group-average fMRI coordinates. More generally, they support the distinction between object and scene processing as an organizing principle of human high-level visual cortex.

中文翻译：

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视觉皮层的对象和场景选择区域之间双重解离的因果证据：一项预先注册的TMS复制研究

自然场景的特征在于单个对象以及全局场景属性（例如空间布局）。功能性神经影像学研究表明，对象与场景处理之间的区别是人类高级视觉皮层的主要组织原理之一。例如，对象选择区域（包括枕骨外侧复合物（LOC））被表示为对象内容（但不包括场景布局），而场景选择区域（包括枕骨部位区域（OPA））被表示为场景。布局（而不是对象内容）。但是，在表示对象和场景时，LOC和OPA双重分离的因果证据目前有限。一个TMS实验，以相对较小的样本（N = 13）进行，报告了LOC和OPA刺激与物体和场景识别性能之间的相互作用（Dilks等，2013）。在这里，我们使用组平均fMRI坐标定位LOC和OPA，展示了这项研究的强大功能（N = 72，包括男性和女性受试者）。结果揭示了LOC和OPA双重解离的明确证据：相对于顶点刺激，LOC上的TMS有选择地损害了物体的识别，而OPA上的TMS有选择地损害了场景的识别。此外，我们发现这些效果在一段时间内稳定，并且在各个对象和场景之间保持一致。这些结果表明，即使基于组平均fMRI坐标进行定义，LOC和OPA仍可以通过TMS可靠且选择性地靶向。更普遍，