Functional subdivisions within the human intraparietal sulcus are involved in visuospatial transformation in a non-context-dependent manner.

ABSTRACT

Object-based visuospatial transformation is important for the ability to interact with the world and the people and objects within it. In this preliminary investigation, we hypothesized that object-based visuospatial transformation is a unitary process invoked regardless of current context and is localized to the intraparietal sulcus. Participants (n = 14) performed both antisaccade and mental rotation tasks while scanned using fMRI. A statistical conjunction confirmed that both tasks activated the intraparietal sulcus. Statistical parametric anatomical mapping determined that the statistical conjunction was localized to intraparietal sulcus subregions hIP2 and hIP3. A Gaussian naïve Bayes classifier confirmed that the conjunction in region hIP3 was indistinguishable between tasks. The results provide evidence that object-based visuospatial transformation is a domain-general process that is invoked regardless of current context. Our results are consistent with the modular model of the posterior parietal cortex and the distinct cytoarchitectonic, structural, and functional connectivity profiles of the subregions in the intraparietal sulcus. Hum Brain Mapp 39354-368, 2018. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.