scholarly journals The Human Posterior Superior Temporal Sulcus Samples Visual Space Differently From Other Face-Selective Regions

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 778-785 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Pitcher ◽  
Amy Pilkington ◽  
Lionel Rauth ◽  
Chris Baker ◽  
Dwight J Kravitz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Space ◽  
Superior Temporal Sulcus ◽  
Human Motion ◽  
Fusiform Face Area ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Face Area ◽  
Selective Area ◽  
The Face ◽  
Occipital Face Area ◽  
Posterior Superior Temporal Sulcus

Abstract Neuroimaging studies show that ventral face-selective regions, including the fusiform face area (FFA) and occipital face area (OFA), preferentially respond to faces presented in the contralateral visual field (VF). In the current study we measured the VF response of the face-selective posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS). Across 3 functional magnetic resonance imaging experiments, participants viewed face videos presented in different parts of the VF. Consistent with prior results, we observed a contralateral VF bias in bilateral FFA, right OFA (rOFA), and bilateral human motion-selective area MT+. Intriguingly, this contralateral VF bias was absent in the bilateral pSTS. We then delivered transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over right pSTS (rpSTS) and rOFA, while participants matched facial expressions in both hemifields. TMS delivered over the rpSTS disrupted performance in both hemifields, but TMS delivered over the rOFA disrupted performance in the contralateral hemifield only. These converging results demonstrate that the contralateral bias for faces observed in ventral face-selective areas is absent in the pSTS. This difference in VF response is consistent with face processing models proposing 2 functionally distinct pathways. It further suggests that these models should account for differences in interhemispheric connections between the face-selective areas across these 2 pathways.

scholarly journals Perception of Face Parts and Face Configurations: An fMRI Study

2010 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 203-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jia Liu ◽  
Alison Harris ◽  
Nancy Kanwisher
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Spatial Configuration ◽  
Superior Temporal Sulcus ◽  
Fusiform Face Area ◽  
First Order ◽  
Face Area ◽  
Fmri Study ◽  
The Face ◽  
Occipital Face Area ◽  
Patient Studies

fMRI studies have reported three regions in human ventral visual cortex that respond selectively to faces: the occipital face area (OFA), the fusiform face area (FFA), and a face-selective region in the superior temporal sulcus (fSTS). Here, we asked whether these areas respond to two first-order aspects of the face argued to be important for face perception, face parts (eyes, nose, and mouth), and the T-shaped spatial configuration of these parts. Specifically, we measured the magnitude of response in these areas to stimuli that (i) either contained real face parts, or did not, and (ii) either had veridical face configurations, or did not. The OFA and the fSTS were sensitive only to the presence of real face parts, not to the correct configuration of those parts, whereas the FFA was sensitive to both face parts and face configuration. Further, only in the FFA was the response to configuration and part information correlated across voxels, suggesting that the FFA contains a unified representation that includes both kinds of information. In combination with prior results from fMRI, TMS, MEG, and patient studies, our data illuminate the functional division of labor in the OFA, FFA, and fSTS.

Learning to See Biological Motion: Brain Activity Parallels Behavior

2004 ◽  
Vol 16 (9) ◽  
pp. 1669-1679 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily D. Grossman ◽  
Randolph Blake ◽  
Chai-Youn Kim
Keyword(s):  
Neural Activity ◽  
Biological Motion ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Daily Practice ◽  
Superior Temporal Sulcus ◽  
Fusiform Face Area ◽  
Face Area ◽  
Perceptual Performance ◽  
Trained Observers ◽  
Posterior Superior Temporal Sulcus

Individuals improve with practice on a variety of perceptual tasks, presumably reflecting plasticity in underlying neural mechanisms. We trained observers to discriminate biological motion from scrambled (nonbiological) motion and examined whether the resulting improvement in perceptual performance was accompanied by changes in activation within the posterior superior temporal sulcus and the fusiform “face area,” brain areas involved in perception of biological events. With daily practice, initially naive observers became more proficient at discriminating biological from scrambled animations embedded in an array of dynamic “noise” dots, with the extent of improvement varying among observers. Learning generalized to animations never seen before, indicating that observers had not simply memorized specific exemplars. In the same observers, neural activity prior to and following training was measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Neural activity within the posterior superior temporal sulcus and the fusiform “face area” reflected the participants' learning: BOLD signals were significantly larger after training in response both to animations experienced during training and to novel animations. The degree of learning was positively correlated with the amplitude changes in BOLD signals.

scholarly journals Attentional Weighting in the Face Processing Network: A Magnetic Response Image-guided Magnetoencephalography Study Using Multiple Cyclic Entrainments

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (10) ◽  
pp. 1573-1588 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eelke de Vries ◽  
Daniel Baldauf
Keyword(s):  
Face Processing ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Magnetic Response ◽  
Fusiform Face Area ◽  
Facial Identity ◽  
Image Guided ◽  
Face Area ◽  
The Face ◽  
Occipital Face Area ◽  
Processing Network

We recorded magnetoencephalography using a neural entrainment paradigm with compound face stimuli that allowed for entraining the processing of various parts of a face (eyes, mouth) as well as changes in facial identity. Our magnetic response image-guided magnetoencephalography analyses revealed that different subnodes of the human face processing network were entrained differentially according to their functional specialization. Whereas the occipital face area was most responsive to the rate at which face parts (e.g., the mouth) changed, and face patches in the STS were mostly entrained by rhythmic changes in the eye region, the fusiform face area was the only subregion that was strongly entrained by the rhythmic changes in facial identity. Furthermore, top–down attention to the mouth, eyes, or identity of the face selectively modulated the neural processing in the respective area (i.e., occipital face area, STS, or fusiform face area), resembling behavioral cue validity effects observed in the participants' RT and detection rate data. Our results show the attentional weighting of the visual processing of different aspects and dimensions of a single face object, at various stages of the involved visual processing hierarchy.

scholarly journals The bottom-up and top-down processing of faces in the human occipitotemporal cortex

eLife ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoxu Fan ◽  
Fan Wang ◽  
Hanyu Shao ◽  
Peng Zhang ◽  
Sheng He
Keyword(s):  
Facial Features ◽  
Fusiform Face Area ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Contextual Cues ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Face Area ◽  
Occipital Face Area ◽  
Occipitotemporal Cortex ◽  
The Right

Although face processing has been studied extensively, the dynamics of how face-selective cortical areas are engaged remains unclear. Here, we uncovered the timing of activation in core face-selective regions using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Magnetoencephalography in humans. Processing of normal faces started in the posterior occipital areas and then proceeded to anterior regions. This bottom-up processing sequence was also observed even when internal facial features were misarranged. However, processing of two-tone Mooney faces lacking explicit prototypical facial features engaged top-down projection from the right posterior fusiform face area to right occipital face area. Further, face-specific responses elicited by contextual cues alone emerged simultaneously in the right ventral face-selective regions, suggesting parallel contextual facilitation. Together, our findings chronicle the precise timing of bottom-up, top-down, as well as context-facilitated processing sequences in the occipital-temporal face network, highlighting the importance of the top-down operations especially when faced with incomplete or ambiguous input.

scholarly journals Using Live and Video Stimuli to Localize Face and Object Processing Regions of the Canine Brain

Animals ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 108
Author(s):  
Kirsten D. Gillette ◽  
Erin M. Phillips ◽  
Daniel D. Dilks ◽  
Gregory S. Berns
Keyword(s):  
Random Order ◽  
Superior Temporal Sulcus ◽  
Regions Of Interest ◽  
Two Dimensional ◽  
Fusiform Face Area ◽  
Object Processing ◽  
Lateral Occipital Complex ◽  
Face Area ◽  
Static Images ◽  
Posterior Superior Temporal Sulcus

Previous research to localize face areas in dogs’ brains has generally relied on static images or videos. However, most dogs do not naturally engage with two-dimensional images, raising the question of whether dogs perceive such images as representations of real faces and objects. To measure the equivalency of live and two-dimensional stimuli in the dog’s brain, during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) we presented dogs and humans with live-action stimuli (actors and objects) as well as videos of the same actors and objects. The dogs (n = 7) and humans (n = 5) were presented with 20 s blocks of faces and objects in random order. In dogs, we found significant areas of increased activation in the putative dog face area, and in humans, we found significant areas of increased activation in the fusiform face area to both live and video stimuli. In both dogs and humans, we found areas of significant activation in the posterior superior temporal sulcus (ectosylvian fissure in dogs) and the lateral occipital complex (entolateral gyrus in dogs) to both live and video stimuli. Of these regions of interest, only the area along the ectosylvian fissure in dogs showed significantly more activation to live faces than to video faces, whereas, in humans, both the fusiform face area and posterior superior temporal sulcus responded significantly more to live conditions than video conditions. However, using the video conditions alone, we were able to localize all regions of interest in both dogs and humans. Therefore, videos can be used to localize these regions of interest, though live conditions may be more salient.

The fusiform face area and occipital face area show sensitivity to spatial relations in faces

2009 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 721-733 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gillian Rhodes ◽  
Patricia T. Michie ◽  
Matthew E. Hughes ◽  
Graham Byatt
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Relations ◽  
Fusiform Face Area ◽  
Face Area ◽  
Occipital Face Area

scholarly journals Neural Tuning for Face Wholes and Parts in Human Fusiform Gyrus Revealed by fMRI Adaptation

2010 ◽  
Vol 104 (1) ◽  
pp. 336-345 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison Harris ◽  
Geoffrey Karl Aguirre
Keyword(s):  
Functional Mri ◽  
Holistic Processing ◽  
Fusiform Face Area ◽  
Single Population ◽  
Face Area ◽  
Neural Populations ◽  
The Face ◽  
Adaptation Response ◽  
The Right ◽  
Fmri Adaptation

Although the right fusiform face area (FFA) is often linked to holistic processing, new data suggest this region also encodes part-based face representations. We examined this question by assessing the metric of neural similarity for faces using a continuous carryover functional MRI (fMRI) design. Using faces varying along dimensions of eye and mouth identity, we tested whether these axes are coded independently by separate part-tuned neural populations or conjointly by a single population of holistically tuned neurons. Consistent with prior results, we found a subadditive adaptation response in the right FFA, as predicted for holistic processing. However, when holistic processing was disrupted by misaligning the halves of the face, the right FFA continued to show significant adaptation, but in an additive pattern indicative of part-based neural tuning. Thus this region seems to contain neural populations capable of representing both individual parts and their integration into a face gestalt. A third experiment, which varied the asymmetry of changes in the eye and mouth identity dimensions, also showed part-based tuning from the right FFA. In contrast to the right FFA, the left FFA consistently showed a part-based pattern of neural tuning across all experiments. Together, these data support the existence of both part-based and holistic neural tuning within the right FFA, further suggesting that such tuning is surprisingly flexible and dynamic.

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