scholarly journals The neural dynamics of familiar face recognition

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Géza Gergely Ambrus ◽  
Daniel Kaiser ◽  
Radoslaw Martin Cichy ◽  
Gyula Kovács
Keyword(s):  
Face Recognition ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Right Hemisphere ◽  
Temporal Cortex ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Identity Information ◽  
Face Identity ◽  
Familiar Face ◽  
Invariant Representations

AbstractIn real-life situations, the appearance of a person’s face can vary substantially across different encounters, making face recognition a challenging task for the visual system. Recent fMRI decoding studies have suggested that face recognition is supported by identity representations located in regions of the occipito-temporal cortex. Here, we used EEG to elucidate the temporal emergence of these representations. Human participants (both sexes) viewed a set of highly variable face images of four highly familiar celebrities (two male, two female), while performing an orthogonal task. Univariate analyses of event-related EEG responses revealed a pronounced differentiation between male and female faces, but not between identities of the same sex. Using multivariate representational similarity analysis, we observed a gradual emergence of face identity representations, with an increasing degree of invariance. Face identity information emerged rapidly, starting shortly after 100ms from stimulus onset. From 400ms after onset and predominantly in the right hemisphere, identity representations showed two invariance properties: (1) they equally discriminated identities of opposite sexes and of the same sex, and (2) they were tolerant to image-based variations. These invariant representations may be a crucial prerequisite for successful face recognition in everyday situations, where the appearance of a familiar person can vary drastically.Significance StatementRecognizing the face of a friend on the street is a task we effortlessly perform in our everyday lives. However, the necessary visual processing underlying familiar face recognition is highly complex. As the appearance of a given person varies drastically between encounters, for example across viewpoints or emotional expressions, the brain needs to extract identity information that is invariant to such changes. Using multivariate analyses of EEG data, we characterize how invariant representations of face identity emerge gradually over time. After 400ms of processing, cortical representations reliably differentiated two similar identities (e.g., two famous male actors), even across a set of highly variable images. These representations may support face recognition under challenging real-life conditions.

scholarly journals An objective, sensitive and ecologically valid neural measure of rapid human individual face recognition

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
pp. 181904 ◽  
Author(s):  
Friederike G. S. Zimmermann ◽  
Xiaoqian Yan ◽  
Bruno Rossion
Keyword(s):  
Face Recognition ◽  
Visual Stimulation ◽  
Natural Images ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Face Identity ◽  
Familiar Face ◽  
Recognition Response ◽  
Human Individual ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Unfamiliar Faces

Humans may be the only species able to rapidly and automatically recognize a familiar face identity in a crowd of unfamiliar faces, an important social skill. Here, by combining electroencephalography (EEG) and fast periodic visual stimulation (FPVS), we introduce an ecologically valid, objective and sensitive neural measure of this human individual face recognition function. Natural images of various unfamiliar faces are presented at a fast rate of 6 Hz, allowing one fixation per face, with variable natural images of a highly familiar face identity, a celebrity, appearing every seven images (0.86 Hz). Following a few minutes of stimulation, a high signal-to-noise ratio neural response reflecting the generalized discrimination of the familiar face identity from unfamiliar faces is observed over the occipito-temporal cortex at 0.86 Hz and harmonics. When face images are presented upside-down, the individual familiar face recognition response is negligible, being reduced by a factor of 5 over occipito-temporal regions. Differences in the magnitude of the individual face recognition response across different familiar face identities suggest that factors such as exposure, within-person variability and distinctiveness mediate this response. Our findings of a biological marker for fast and automatic recognition of individual familiar faces with ecological stimuli open an avenue for understanding this function, its development and neural basis in neurotypical individual brains along with its pathology. This should also have implications for the use of facial recognition measures in forensic science.

Recognizing Face Identity from Natural and Morphed Smiles

2006 ◽  
Vol 59 (5) ◽  
pp. 801-808 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Lander ◽  
Lewis Chuang ◽  
Lee Wickham
Keyword(s):  
Face Recognition ◽  
Nonrigid Motion ◽  
Face Identity ◽  
Familiar Face ◽  
Static Image ◽  
General Benefit ◽  
Better Than

It is easier to identify a degraded familiar face when it is shown moving (smiling, talking; nonrigid motion), than when it is displayed as a static image (Knight & Johnston, 1997; Lander, Christie, & Bruce, 1999). Here we explore the theoretical underpinnings of the moving face recognition advantage. In Experiment 1 we show that the identification of personally familiar faces when shown naturally smiling is significantly better than when the person is shown artificially smiling (morphed motion), as a single static neutral image or as a single static smiling image. In Experiment 2 we demonstrate that speeding up the motion significantly impairs the recognition of identity from natural smiles, but has little effect on morphed smiles. We conclude that the recognition advantage for face motion does not reflect a general benefit for motion, but suggests that, for familiar faces, information about their characteristic motion is stored in memory.

scholarly journals Neural microgenesis of personally familiar face recognition

2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (35) ◽  
pp. E4835-E4844 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meike Ramon ◽  
Luca Vizioli ◽  
Joan Liu-Shuang ◽  
Bruno Rossion
Keyword(s):  
Face Recognition ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Medial Temporal Lobe ◽  
Temporal Cortex ◽  
Inferior Temporal Cortex ◽  
Sufficient Information ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Familiar Face ◽  
Spatial Frequencies ◽  
The Face

Despite a wealth of information provided by neuroimaging research, the neural basis of familiar face recognition in humans remains largely unknown. Here, we isolated the discriminative neural responses to unfamiliar and familiar faces by slowly increasing visual information (i.e., high-spatial frequencies) to progressively reveal faces of unfamiliar or personally familiar individuals. Activation in ventral occipitotemporal face-preferential regions increased with visual information, independently of long-term face familiarity. In contrast, medial temporal lobe structures (perirhinal cortex, amygdala, hippocampus) and anterior inferior temporal cortex responded abruptly when sufficient information for familiar face recognition was accumulated. These observations suggest that following detailed analysis of individual faces in core posterior areas of the face-processing network, familiar face recognition emerges categorically in medial temporal and anterior regions of the extended cortical face network.

scholarly journals The Neurological Asymmetry of Self-Face Recognition

Symmetry ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 1135
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Janowska ◽  
Brianna Balugas ◽  
Matthew Pardillo ◽  
Victoria Mistretta ◽  
Katherine Chavarria ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Face Recognition ◽  
Social Relationships ◽  
Right Hemisphere ◽  
Temporal Cortex ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Direct Inhibition ◽  
Hemisphere Dominance

While the desire to uncover the neural correlates of consciousness has taken numerous directions, self-face recognition has been a constant in attempts to isolate aspects of self-awareness. The neuroimaging revolution of the 1990s brought about systematic attempts to isolate the underlying neural basis of self-face recognition. These studies, including some of the first fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) examinations, revealed a right-hemisphere bias for self-face recognition in a diverse set of regions including the insula, the dorsal frontal lobe, the temporal parietal junction, and the medial temporal cortex. In this systematic review, we provide confirmation of these data (which are correlational) which were provided by TMS (transcranial magnetic stimulation) and patients in which direct inhibition or ablation of right-hemisphere regions leads to a disruption or absence of self-face recognition. These data are consistent with a number of theories including a right-hemisphere dominance for self-awareness and/or a right-hemisphere specialization for identifying significant social relationships, including to oneself.

scholarly journals Recognizing Faces

2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 212-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew W. Young ◽  
A. Mike Burton
Keyword(s):  
Face Recognition ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Familiar Face ◽  
Image Variability ◽  
Unfamiliar Faces

The idea that most of us are good at recognizing faces permeates everyday thinking and is widely used in the research literature. However, it is a correct characterization only of familiar-face recognition. In contrast, the perception and recognition of unfamiliar faces can be surprisingly error-prone, and this has important consequences in many real-life settings. We emphasize the variability in views of faces encountered in everyday life and point out how neglect of this important property has generated some misleading conclusions. Many approaches have treated image variability as unwanted noise, whereas we show how studies that use and explore the implications of image variability can drive substantial theoretical advances.

scholarly journals A fast link between face perception and memory in the temporal pole

Science ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. eabi6671
Author(s):  
Sofia M. Landi ◽  
Pooja Viswanathan ◽  
Stephen Serene ◽  
Winrich A. Freiwald
Keyword(s):  
Face Recognition ◽  
Face Perception ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
History Of Neuroscience ◽  
Person Memory ◽  
Familiar Face ◽  
Fast Recognition ◽  
Temporal Pole ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Brain

The question of how the brain recognizes the faces of familiar individuals has been important throughout the history of neuroscience. Cells linking visual processing to person memory have been proposed, but not found. Here we report the discovery of such cells through recordings from an fMRI-identified area in the macaque temporal pole. These cells responded to faces when they were personally familiar. They responded non-linearly to step-wise changes in face visibility and detail, and holistically to face parts, reflecting key signatures of familiar face recognition. They discriminated between familiar identities, as fast as a general face identity area. The discovery of these cells establishes a new pathway for the fast recognition of familiar individuals.

scholarly journals Left hemisphere abnormalities in developmental prosopagnosia when looking at faces but not words

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Gerlach ◽  
Solja K Klargaard ◽  
Dag Alnæs ◽  
Knut K Kolskår ◽  
Jens Karstoft ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Face Recognition ◽  
Left Hemisphere ◽  
Word Processing ◽  
Right Hemisphere ◽  
Temporal Cortex ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Lateral Occipital Complex ◽  
Line Drawings ◽  
Neural Underpinnings ◽  
Mri Study

Abstract Developmental prosopagnosia is a disorder characterized by profound and lifelong difficulties with face recognition in the absence of sensory or intellectual deficits or known brain injury. While there has been a surge in research on developmental prosopagnosia over the last decade and a half, the cognitive mechanisms behind the disorder and its neural underpinnings remain elusive. Most recently it has been proposed that developmental prosopagnosia may be a manifestation of widespread disturbance in neural migration which affects both face responsive brain regions as well as other category-sensitive visual areas. We present a combined behavioural and functional MRI study of face, object and word processing in a group of developmental prosopagnosics (N = 15). We show that developmental prosopagnosia is associated with reduced activation of core ventral face areas during perception of faces. The reductions were bilateral but tended to be more pronounced in the left hemisphere. As the first study to address category selectivity for word processing in developmental prosopagnosia, we do not, however, find evidence for reduced activation of the visual word form area during perception of orthographic material. We also find no evidence for reduced activation of the lateral occipital complex during perception of objects. These imaging findings correspond well with the behavioural performance of the developmental prosopagnosics, who show severe impairment for faces but normal reading and recognition of line drawings. Our findings suggest that a general deficit in neural migration across ventral occipito-temporal cortex is not a viable explanation for developmental prosopagnosia. The finding of left hemisphere involvement in our group of developmental prosopagnosics was at first surprising. However, a closer look at existing studies shows similar, but hitherto undiscussed, findings. These left hemisphere abnormalities seen in developmental prosopagnosia contrasts with lesion and imaging studies suggesting primarily right hemisphere involvement in acquired prosopagnosia, and this may reflect that the left hemisphere is important for the development of a normal face recognition network.

Functional Plasticity in Ventral Temporal Cortex following Cognitive Rehabilitation of a Congenital Prosopagnosic

2007 ◽  
Vol 19 (11) ◽  
pp. 1790-1802 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph M. DeGutis ◽  
Shlomo Bentin ◽  
Lynn C. Robertson ◽  
Mark D'Esposito
Keyword(s):  
Face Recognition ◽  
Cognitive Rehabilitation ◽  
Right Hemisphere ◽  
Spatial Configuration ◽  
Temporal Cortex ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Face Identification ◽  
Face Area ◽  
Congenital Prosopagnosia ◽  
The Right

We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG) to measure neural changes associated with training configural processing in congenital prosopagnosia, a condition in which face identification abilities are not properly developed in the absence of brain injury or visual problems. We designed a task that required discriminating faces by their spatial configuration and, after extensive training, prosopagnosic MZ significantly improved at face identification. Event-related potential results revealed that although the N170 was not selective for faces before training, its selectivity after training was normal. fMRI demonstrated increased functional connectivity between ventral occipital temporal face-selective regions (right occipital face area and right fusiform face area) that accompanied improvement in face recognition. Several other regions showed fMRI activity changes with training; the majority of these regions increased connectivity with face-selective regions. Together, the neural mechanisms associated with face recognition improvements involved strengthening early face-selective mechanisms and increased coordination between face-selective and nonselective regions, particularly in the right hemisphere.

scholarly journals Multiple adjoining word and face selective regions in ventral temporal cortex exhibit distinct dynamics

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew J. Boring ◽  
Edward H. Silson ◽  
Michael J. Ward ◽  
R. Mark Richardson ◽  
Julie A. Fiez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Field ◽  
Left Hemisphere ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Word Processing ◽  
Right Hemisphere ◽  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Temporal Cortex ◽  
7 Tesla ◽  
Important Principle ◽  
Ventral Temporal Cortex

AbstractThe map of category-selectivity in human ventral temporal cortex (VTC) provides organizational constraints to models of object recognition. One important principle is lateral-medial response biases to stimuli that are typically viewed in the center or periphery of the visual field. However, little is known about the relative temporal dynamics and location of regions that respond preferentially to stimulus classes that are centrally viewed, like the face and word processing networks. Here, word- and face-selective regions within VTC were mapped using intracranial recordings from 36 patients. Partially overlapping, but also anatomically dissociable patches of face and word selectivity were found in ventral temporal cortex. In addition to canonical word-selective regions along the left posterior occipitotemporal sulcus, selectivity was also located medial and anterior to face-selective regions on the fusiform gyrus at the group level and within individual subjects. These regions were replicated using 7-Tesla fMRI in healthy subjects. Left hemisphere word-selective regions preceded right hemisphere responses by 125 ms, potentially reflecting the left hemisphere bias for language; with no hemispheric difference in face-selective response latency. Word-selective regions along the posterior fusiform responded first, then spread medially and laterally, then anteriorally. Face-selective responses were first seen in posterior fusiform regions bilaterally, then proceeded anteriorally from there. For both words and faces, the relative delay between regions was longer than would be predicted by purely feedforward models of visual processing. The distinct time-courses of responses across these regions, and between hemispheres, suggest a complex and dynamic functional circuit supports face and word perception.Significance StatementRepresentations of visual objects in the human brain have been shown to be organized by several principles, including whether those objects tend to be viewed centrally or in the periphery of the visual field. However, it remains unclear how regions that process objects that are viewed centrally, like words and faces, are organized relative to one another. Here, direct neural recordings and 7T fMRI demonstrate that several intermingled regions in ventral temporal cortex participate in word and face processing. These regions display differences in their temporal dynamics and response characteristics, both within and between brain hemispheres, suggesting they play different roles in perception. These results illuminate extended, bilateral, and dynamic brain pathways that support face perception and reading.

Distinct mechanisms of face representation by enhancive and suppressive neurons of the inferior temporal cortex

2020 ◽  
Vol 124 (4) ◽  
pp. 1216-1228
Author(s):  
Sina Salehi ◽  
Mohammad Reza A. Dehaqani ◽  
Behrad Noudoost ◽  
Hossein Esteky
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Temporal Cortex ◽  
Inferior Temporal Cortex ◽  
Spatial Clusters ◽  
Imaging Studies ◽  
Face Representation ◽  
Identity Information ◽  
Face Identity

Electrophysiological and imaging studies have suggested that face information is encoded by a network of clusters of enhancive face-selective neurons in the visual cortex of man and monkey. We show that nearly half of face-selective neurons are suppressed by face stimulation. The suppressive neurons form spatial clusters and convey more face identity information than the enhancive face neurons. Our results suggest the presence of two neuronal subsystems for coarse and fine face information processing.

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