A previously undescribed scene-selective site is the key to encoding ego-motion in naturalistic environments

Current models of scene processing in the human brain include three scene-selective areas: the Parahippocampal Place Area (or the temporal place areas; PPA/TPA), the restrosplenial cortex (or the medial place area; RSC/MPA) and the transverse occipital sulcus (or the occipital place area; TOS/OPA). Here, we challenged this model by showing that at least one other scene-selective site can also be detected within the human posterior intraparietal gyrus. Despite the smaller size of this site compared to the other scene-selective areas, the posterior intraparietal gyrus scene-selective (PIGS) site was detected consistently in a large pool of subjects (n=59; 33 females). The reproducibility of this finding was tested based on multiple criteria, including comparing the results across sessions, utilizing different scanners (3T and 7T) and stimulus sets. Furthermore, we found that this site (but not the other three scene-selective areas) is significantly sensitive to ego-motion in scenes, thus ..., 3T scans: In Experiments 1, 3a and 4-6, subjects were scanned in a horizontal 3T scanner (Tim Trio, Siemens Healthcare, Erlangen, Germany). Gradient echo EPI sequences were used for functional imaging. Functional data were acquired using single-shot gradient echo EPI with nominally 3.0 mm isotropic voxels (TR=2000 ms; TE=30 ms; flip angle=90°; band width (BW)=2298 Hz/pix; echo-spacing= 0.5 ms; no partial Fourier; 33 axial slices covering the entire brain; and no acceleration). During the first 3T scan (see the General Procedure), structural (anatomical) data were acquired for each subject using a 3D T1-weighted MPRAGE sequence (TR=2530 ms; TE=3.39 ms; TI=1100 ms; flip angle=7°; BW=200 Hz/pix; echo-spacing=8.2 ms; voxel size=1.0×1.0×1.33 mm).
7T scans: In Experiments 2 and 3b, subjects were scanned in a 7T Siemens whole-body scanner (Siemens Healthcare, Erlangen, Germany) equipped with SC72 body gradients (maximum gradient strength, 70 mT/m; maximum slew rate, 200 T/m/s) using a custom-b..., , # A previously undescribed scene-selective site is the key to encoding ego-motion in naturalistic environments

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.xwdbrv1mj](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.xwdbrv1mj)

3T and 7T functional MRI was used to study the functional organization of scene-selective cortical regions in the human brain. The focus of this study was to localize a previously undescribed scene-selective region within the posterior intraparietal gyrus (named PIGS) that responded selectively to ego-motion within naturalistic environments.

## Description of the data and file structure

This dataset includes the stimuli (other than those published previously elsewhere), significance maps, generated probabilistic labels, and the measured activity across ROIS, as presented in Figures 1-13 in the corresponding article (Kennedy et al., 2024; eLife). Specifically:

Fig_1_maps folder contains the significance maps that show the distribution of scene-selective areas within the human visual cortex ba...