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Concrete vs. abstract forms of social concept: An fMRI comparison of knowledge about people vs. social terms. / Rice, Grace; Hoffman, Paul; Binney, Richard J. et al.
In: Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, Vol. 373, 20170136, 05.08.2018.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

HarvardHarvard

Rice, G, Hoffman, P, Binney, RJ & Lambon Ralph, M 2018, 'Concrete vs. abstract forms of social concept: An fMRI comparison of knowledge about people vs. social terms', Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, vol. 373, 20170136.

APA

Rice, G., Hoffman, P., Binney, R. J., & Lambon Ralph, M. (2018). Concrete vs. abstract forms of social concept: An fMRI comparison of knowledge about people vs. social terms. Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 373, Article 20170136.

CBE

Rice G, Hoffman P, Binney RJ, Lambon Ralph M. 2018. Concrete vs. abstract forms of social concept: An fMRI comparison of knowledge about people vs. social terms. Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 373:Article 20170136.

MLA

Rice, Grace et al. "Concrete vs. abstract forms of social concept: An fMRI comparison of knowledge about people vs. social terms". Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 2018. 373.

VancouverVancouver

Rice G, Hoffman P, Binney RJ, Lambon Ralph M. Concrete vs. abstract forms of social concept: An fMRI comparison of knowledge about people vs. social terms. Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 2018 Aug 5;373:20170136. Epub 2018 Jun 18.

Author

Rice, Grace ; Hoffman, Paul ; Binney, Richard J. et al. / Concrete vs. abstract forms of social concept : An fMRI comparison of knowledge about people vs. social terms. In: Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 2018 ; Vol. 373.

RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - Concrete vs. abstract forms of social concept

T2 - An fMRI comparison of knowledge about people vs. social terms

AU - Rice, Grace

AU - Hoffman, Paul

AU - Binney, Richard J.

AU - Lambon Ralph, Matthew

PY - 2018/8/5

Y1 - 2018/8/5

N2 - The anterior temporal lobes (ATLs) play a key role in conceptual knowledge representation. The hub-and-spoke theory suggests that the contribution of the ATLs to semantic representation is (a) transmodal, i.e., integrating information from multiple sensorimotor and verbal modalities, and (b) pan-categorical, representing concepts from all categories. Another literature, however, suggests that this region’s responses are modality- and category-selective; prominent examples include category selectivity for socially-relevant concepts and face recognition. The predictions of each approach have never been directly compared. We used data from three studies to compare category-selective responses within the ATLs. Study 1 compared ATL responses to famous people vs. another conceptual category (landmarks) from visual vs. auditory inputs. Study 2 compared ATL responses to famous people from pictorial and written word inputs. Study 3 compared ATL responses to a different kind of socially-relevant stimuli, namely abstract non-person related words, in order to ascertain whether ATL subregions are engaged for social concepts more generally or only for person-related knowledge. Across all three studies a dominant bilateral ventral ATL cluster responded to all categories in all modalities. Anterior to this “pan-category” transmodal region, a second cluster responded more weakly overall yet selectively for people, but did so equally for spoken names and faces (Study 1). A third region in the anterior superior temporal gyrus responded selectively to abstract socially-relevant words (Study 3), but did not respond to socially-relevant concrete words (i.e., written names; Study 2). These findings can be accommodated by the graded hub-and-spoke model of concept representation. On this view, the ventral ATL is the centrepoint of a bilateral ATL hub which contributes to conceptual representation through transmodal distillation of information arising from multiple modality-specific association cortices. Partial specialisation occurs across the graded ATL hub as a consequence of gradedly-differential connectivity across the region.

AB - The anterior temporal lobes (ATLs) play a key role in conceptual knowledge representation. The hub-and-spoke theory suggests that the contribution of the ATLs to semantic representation is (a) transmodal, i.e., integrating information from multiple sensorimotor and verbal modalities, and (b) pan-categorical, representing concepts from all categories. Another literature, however, suggests that this region’s responses are modality- and category-selective; prominent examples include category selectivity for socially-relevant concepts and face recognition. The predictions of each approach have never been directly compared. We used data from three studies to compare category-selective responses within the ATLs. Study 1 compared ATL responses to famous people vs. another conceptual category (landmarks) from visual vs. auditory inputs. Study 2 compared ATL responses to famous people from pictorial and written word inputs. Study 3 compared ATL responses to a different kind of socially-relevant stimuli, namely abstract non-person related words, in order to ascertain whether ATL subregions are engaged for social concepts more generally or only for person-related knowledge. Across all three studies a dominant bilateral ventral ATL cluster responded to all categories in all modalities. Anterior to this “pan-category” transmodal region, a second cluster responded more weakly overall yet selectively for people, but did so equally for spoken names and faces (Study 1). A third region in the anterior superior temporal gyrus responded selectively to abstract socially-relevant words (Study 3), but did not respond to socially-relevant concrete words (i.e., written names; Study 2). These findings can be accommodated by the graded hub-and-spoke model of concept representation. On this view, the ventral ATL is the centrepoint of a bilateral ATL hub which contributes to conceptual representation through transmodal distillation of information arising from multiple modality-specific association cortices. Partial specialisation occurs across the graded ATL hub as a consequence of gradedly-differential connectivity across the region.

KW - Semantic cognition

KW - Conceptual knowledge

KW - Social cognition

KW - Face recognition

KW - Anterior temporal lobe

M3 - Article

VL - 373

JO - Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

JF - Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

SN - 1471-2970

M1 - 20170136

ER -