Abstract:

Knowledge of function is critical for selecting objects to meet action goals, even when the affordances of those objects are not mechanical—for instance, both a painting and a vase can decorate a room. To identify neural representations of such abstract function concepts, we asked participants in an fMRI scanner to view a variety of objects and evaluate their utility to each of four goals (two Decoration goals: dress up for a night out and decorate a house, and two Protection goals: protect your body from the cold and keep objects dry in a flooded basement). These task conditions differed in the kind of functional evaluation participants had to perform over objects, but did not vary in the objects themselves. We performed a searchlight multivariate pattern analysis to identify cortical representations in which neural patterns were more similar for the pairs of similar-goal than dissimilar-goal task conditions (Decorate vs. Protect). We report such effects in anterior inferior parietal lobe (aIPL) close to regions typically reported for processing tool-related actions, and thought to be important for representing how they are manipulated. However, the current study design fully controlled for manipulation similarity, which predicted orthogonal relationships among the conditions. We conclude that the aIPL likely has nearby, but distinct, representations of both manipulation and function knowledge, and thereby may have a broader role in understanding how objects can be used, representing not just physical affordances but also abstract functional criteria such as esthetic value or purpose categories such as decorate. This pattern of localization has implications for how semantic knowledge is organized in the brain.