The cross-domain functional organisation of posterior lateral temporal cortex: Insights from ALE meta-analyses of seven cognitive domains spanning 9515 participants

Abstract

The posterior lateral temporal cortex is implicated in many verbal, nonverbal and social cognitive domains and processes. Yet without directly comparing these disparate domains, the regions organisation remains unclear; do distinct processes engage discrete subregions, or could different domains engage shared neural correlates and processes? Here, using activation likelihood estimation meta-analyses, the bilateral posterior lateral temporal cortex subregions engaged in seven domains were directly compared. These domains comprised semantics, semantic control, phonology, biological motion, face processing, theory of mind, and representation of tools. Whilst phonology and biological motion were predominantly associated with distinct regions, other domains implicated overlapping areas, perhaps due to shared underlying processes. Theory of mind recruited regions implicated in semantic representation in the left hemisphere, tools engaged semantic control areas, and faces engaged subregions for biological motion and theory of mind. This cross-domain approach provides insight into how posterior lateral temporal cortex is organised and why.