Differences in cerebral activation during perception of optokinetic computer stimuli and video clips of living animals: An fMRI study

Aims: There is behavioral evidence of increased spontaneous recruitment of visual attention to ancestral evolved categories, such as animals, compared with expertise-derived categories, such as a computer. In order to investigate the association between visual perception and spontaneous visual attention, a study was performed to determine if brain activation whilst viewing moving animals was increased compared with optokinetic computer stimuli. Methods: Functional MRI was performed in 12 healthy volunteers using a standard block-design paradigm, consisting of three consecutive experiments. Subjects viewed the following images: Experiment one — optokinetic computer stimuli alternating with static computer stimuli; Experiment two — moving animals alternating with non-moving animals; Experiment three — moving animals alternating with optokinetic computer stimuli. Results: Moving animals evoked motion-dependent activation bilaterally in the middle and superior temporal gyri, right inferior temporal gyrus, left occipital gyrus, right supramarginal gyrus, and left straight gyrus. Integrated object-and-motion-dependent activation was found bilateral in inferior and middle temporal gyri, right superior temporal gyrus, right superior parietal lobule, left dorsal putamen, and right amygdala. Conclusions: These results suggest that there is increased cerebral activity in the visuo-attentional network whilst viewing moving animals compared with optokinetic computer stimuli.

Research Highlights
► Viewing animals compared with computer stimuli increases cerebral activation.
► Animal-related activation in superior and middle temporal regions depends on motion.
► Animal-related activation in inferior temporal regions depends on object and motion.
► The quantity of animal-related neural activation is related to visual attention.