生物谷报道：中科院生物物理研究所脑与认知科学国家重点实验室最新研究发现：人类大脑左半球对大范围拓扑性质的知觉占优势，右半球对局部几何性质的知觉占优势。该发现发表于2007年12月26日的《美国科学院院刊》，并被该刊《本期导读》专栏介绍。
中科院生物物理所陈霖院士领导的认知科学和脑成像团队，创立了“大范围首先”的拓扑性质知觉理论，向半个世纪以来占统治地位的“局部首先”的理论提出挑战，强调知觉过程是由大范围拓扑不变性质开始的，为左右大脑差别的研究提供了一条崭新的思路。
该所王波等青年学者把“大范围首先”的拓扑性质知觉理论应用到大脑半球不对称性的研究。他们经过6年多的大量实验把各种拓扑性质（如洞的个数、内外关系等）和其他几何性质（如朝向、距离、大小、对称性、平行性、直线性等）进行了系统比较测试，一致揭示了惯用右手的人左脑拓扑性质的知觉占优势；还用功能磁共振成像发现，拓扑性质分辨产生大脑左半球颞叶兴奋。有专家认为，该研究得出的结论“左半球拓扑性质知觉占优势、右半球局部几何性质知觉占优势”，为解决视觉的左右大脑关系的各种争论问题提供了一个统一的理论框架，同时为认识大脑、开发大脑提供了一个基本的科学根据。
《美国科学院院刊》的审稿者在评论中指出：这（指左右大脑关系）是一个被广泛研究了很多年的既重要又混淆的领域；陈和他的群体提供了有力证据，用拓扑性质来定义大范围的整体，能够即便不是完全地、也是充分地澄清了这样的混淆。
生物谷推荐英文原文：
Published online before print December 18, 2007, 10.1073/pnas.0709664104
PNAS | December 26, 2007 | vol. 104 | no. 52 | 21014-21019
BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES / PSYCHOLOGY
Global topological dominance in the left hemisphere
Bo Wang*, Tian Gang Zhou, Yan Zhuo*, and Lin Chen
State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 15 Datun Road, 100101 Beijing, China
Communicated by Robert Desimone, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, October 17, 2007 (received for review August 9, 2007)
A series of experiments with right-handers demonstrated that the left hemisphere (LH) is reliably and consistently superior to the right hemisphere (RH) for global topological perception. These experiments generalized the topological account of lateralization to different kinds of topological properties (including holes, inside/outside relation, and "presence vs. absence") in comparison with a broad spectrum of geometric properties, including orientation, distance, size, mirror-symmetry, parallelism, collinearity, etc. The stimuli and paradigms used were also designed to prevent subjects from using various nontopological properties in performing the tasks of topological discrimination. Furthermore, task factors commonly considered in the study of hemispheric asymmetry, such as response latency vs. accuracy, vertical vs. horizontal presentation, detection vs. recognition, and simultaneous vs. sequential judgment, were manipulated to not be confounding factors. Moreover, left-handed subjects were tested and showed the right lateralization of topological perception, in the opposite direction of lateralization compared with right-handers. In addition, the functional magnetic resonance imaging measure revealed that only a region in the left temporal gyrus was consistently more activated across subjects in the task of topological discrimination, consistent with the behavioral results. In summary, the global topological dominance in the LH is well supported by the converging evidence from the variety of paradigms and techniques, and it suggests a unified solution to the current major controversies on visual lateralization.
visual lateralization | perception | temporal gyrus | holes | inside/outside relation
Fig. 2. Results of the fMRI study. (A–C) fMRI activation loci in conditions A and B and the condition of topological category vs. local geometric category, respectively. (D and E) The two time courses of fMRI signal changes in conditions A and B [t(1,13) = 9.88, P = 3 x 10–7, and t(1,11) = 4.69, P = 6.6 x 10–4]. (F) Significant peaks of activation loci identified in 15 individual subjects (green squares) and in a group analysis (larger green circle) in condition A, and in 12 individual subjects (magenta squares) and in a group analysis (larger magenta circle) in condition B; peaks are projected on the IT area of a flattened LH cortical surface of an average template brain.
