Domain-specific functional coupling between dorsal and ventral systems during action perception

Visual perception of actions and objects has been shown to activate different cortical systems: action perception system spanning more dorsally, across parietal, frontal, and dorsal temporal regions; object perception relying more strongly the ventral occipitotemporal cortex (VOTC). Compared to the well-established object-domain structure (e.g., faces vs. artifacts) in VOTC, it is less known whether the action perception system is constrained by similar domain principle and whether it communicates with the ventral object recognition system in a domain-specific manner. In a fMRI long-block experiment designed to evaluate both regional activity and task-based functional connectivity (FC) patterns, participants viewed animated videos of a human performing two domains of actions to the same set of meaningless shapes without object-domain information: social-communicative-actions (e.g., waving) and manipulation-actions (e.g., folding). We observed action-domain-specific activations, with the superior temporal sulcus and the right precentral region responding more strongly during social-communicative-action perception; the supramarginal gyrus, inferior and superior parietal lobe, and precentral gyrus during manipulation-action perception. The two domains of action perception systems communicated with VOTC in domain-specific manners: FC between the social-communicative-action system and the bilateral fusiform face area was enhanced during social-communicative-action perception; FC between the manipulation-action system and the left tool-preferring lateral occipitoptemporal cortex was enhanced during manipulation-action perception. There was a significant correlation between the FC-with-action-system and the local activity strength across VOTC voxels. Our findings highlight social- and manipulation-domains of human interaction as an overarching principle of both object and action perception systems, with domain-based functional communication across systems.