scholarly journals A cortical route for face-like pattern processing in human newborns

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Buiatti ◽  
Elisa Di Giorgio ◽  
Manuela Piazza ◽  
Carlo Polloni ◽  
Giuseppe Menna ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Face Processing ◽  
Visual Stimulation ◽  
Neural Substrates ◽  
Large Set ◽  
Source Reconstruction ◽  
Pattern Processing ◽  
Cortical Circuit ◽  
Processing Circuit ◽  
Limited Duration ◽  
Inverted Face

AbstractHumans are endowed with an exceptional ability for detecting faces, a competence that in adults is supported by a set of face-specific cortical patches. Human newborns already shortly after birth preferentially orient to faces even when they are presented in the form of highly schematic geometrical patterns, over perceptually equivalent non-face-like stimuli. The neural substrates underlying this early preference are still largely unexplored. Is the adult face-specific cortical circuit already active at birth, or does its specialization develop slowly as a function of experience and/or maturation? We measured EEG responses in 1-4 days old awake, attentive human newborns to schematic face-like patterns and non-face-like control stimuli, visually presented with a slow oscillatory “peekaboo” dynamics (0.8 Hz) in a frequency-tagging design. Despite the limited duration of newborns’ attention, reliable frequency-tagged responses could be estimated for each stimulus from the peak of the EEG power spectrum at the stimulation frequency. Upright face-like stimuli elicited a significantly stronger frequency-tagged response than inverted face-like controls in a large set of electrodes. Source reconstruction of the underlying cortical activity revealed the recruitment of a partially right-lateralized network comprising lateral occipito-temporal and medial parietal areas largely overlapping with the adult face-processing circuit. This result suggests that the cortical route specialized in face processing is already functional at birth.Significance statementNewborns show a remarkable ability to detect faces even minutes after birth, an ecologically fundamental skill that is instrumental for interacting with their conspecifics. What are the neural bases of this expertise? Using EEG and a slow oscillatory visual stimulation, we identified a reliable response specific to face-like patterns in newborns, which underlying cortical sources largely overlap with the adult face-specific cortical circuit. This suggests that the development of face perception in infants might rely on an early cortical route specialized in face processing already shortly after birth.

scholarly journals Cortical route for facelike pattern processing in human newborns

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (10) ◽  
pp. 4625-4630 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Buiatti ◽  
Elisa Di Giorgio ◽  
Manuela Piazza ◽  
Carlo Polloni ◽  
Giuseppe Menna ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Face Processing ◽  
Neural Substrates ◽  
Large Set ◽  
Source Reconstruction ◽  
Eeg Power Spectrum ◽  
Pattern Processing ◽  
Eeg Power ◽  
Cortical Circuit ◽  
Processing Circuit ◽  
Limited Duration

Humans are endowed with an exceptional ability for detecting faces, a competence that, in adults, is supported by a set of face-specific cortical patches. Human newborns, already shortly after birth, preferentially orient to faces, even when they are presented in the form of highly schematic geometrical patterns vs. perceptually equivalent nonfacelike stimuli. The neural substrates underlying this early preference are still largely unexplored. Is the adult face-specific cortical circuit already active at birth, or does its specialization develop slowly as a function of experience and/or maturation? We measured EEG responses in 1- to 4-day-old awake, attentive human newborns to schematic facelike patterns and nonfacelike control stimuli, visually presented with slow oscillatory “peekaboo” dynamics (0.8 Hz) in a frequency-tagging design. Despite the limited duration of newborns’ attention, reliable frequency-tagged responses could be estimated for each stimulus from the peak of the EEG power spectrum at the stimulation frequency. Upright facelike stimuli elicited a significantly stronger frequency-tagged response than inverted facelike controls in a large set of electrodes. Source reconstruction of the underlying cortical activity revealed the recruitment of a partially right-lateralized network comprising lateral occipitotemporal and medial parietal areas overlapping with the adult face-processing circuit. This result suggests that the cortical route specialized in face processing is already functional at birth.

scholarly journals Efficient inverse graphics in biological face processing

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (10) ◽  
pp. eaax5979 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilker Yildirim ◽  
Mario Belledonne ◽  
Winrich Freiwald ◽  
Josh Tenenbaum
Keyword(s):  
Face Processing ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Generative Models ◽  
Neural Data ◽  
Primate Brain ◽  
Scene Structure ◽  
Analysis By Synthesis ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Processing Circuit ◽  
Better Than

Vision not only detects and recognizes objects, but performs rich inferences about the underlying scene structure that causes the patterns of light we see. Inverting generative models, or “analysis-by-synthesis”, presents a possible solution, but its mechanistic implementations have typically been too slow for online perception, and their mapping to neural circuits remains unclear. Here we present a neurally plausible efficient inverse graphics model and test it in the domain of face recognition. The model is based on a deep neural network that learns to invert a three-dimensional face graphics program in a single fast feedforward pass. It explains human behavior qualitatively and quantitatively, including the classic “hollow face” illusion, and it maps directly onto a specialized face-processing circuit in the primate brain. The model fits both behavioral and neural data better than state-of-the-art computer vision models, and suggests an interpretable reverse-engineering account of how the brain transforms images into percepts.

scholarly journals Neural substrates of cognitive switching and inhibition in a face processing task

NeuroImage ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 82 ◽  
pp. 489-499 ◽  
Author(s):  
Camille Piguet ◽  
Virginie Sterpenich ◽  
Martin Desseilles ◽  
Yann Cojan ◽  
Gilles Bertschy ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Face Processing ◽  
Neural Substrates ◽  
Processing Task ◽  
Cognitive Switching

Neural Substrates of “Thought Disorder” in Schizophrenia: A Dysfunction in the Cortical-Cerebellar-Thalamic-Cortical Circuit (CCTCC)

NeuroImage ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. S198
Author(s):  
N.C. Andreasen ◽  
D.S. O’Leary ◽  
V.A. Magnotta ◽  
T. Cizadlo ◽  
R.D. Hichwa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Neural Substrates ◽  
Thought Disorder ◽  
Cortical Circuit

scholarly journals The effect of face inversion for neurons inside and outside fMRI-defined face-selective cortical regions

2015 ◽  
Vol 113 (5) ◽  
pp. 1644-1655 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Taubert ◽  
Goedele Van Belle ◽  
Wim Vanduffel ◽  
Bruno Rossion ◽  
Rufin Vogels
Keyword(s):  
Face Processing ◽  
Neuronal Response ◽  
Image Manipulation ◽  
Stimulus Position ◽  
Primate Brain ◽  
Cell Recording ◽  
The Face ◽  
High Concentrations ◽  
Cortical Regions ◽  
Inverted Face

It is widely believed that face processing in the primate brain occurs in a network of category-selective cortical regions. Combined functional MRI (fMRI)-single-cell recording studies in macaques have identified high concentrations of neurons that respond more to faces than objects within face-selective patches. However, cells with a preference for faces over objects are also found scattered throughout inferior temporal (IT) cortex, raising the question whether face-selective cells inside and outside of the face patches differ functionally. Here, we compare the properties of face-selective cells inside and outside of face-selective patches in the IT cortex by means of an image manipulation that reliably disrupts behavior toward face processing: inversion. We recorded IT neurons from two fMRI-defined face-patches (ML and AL) and a region outside of the face patches (herein labeled OUT) during upright and inverted face stimulation. Overall, turning faces upside down reduced the firing rate of face-selective cells. However, there were differences among the recording regions. First, the reduced neuronal response for inverted faces was independent of stimulus position, relative to fixation, in the face-selective patches (ML and AL) only. Additionally, the effect of inversion for face-selective cells in ML, but not those in AL or OUT, was impervious to whether the neurons were initially searched for using upright or inverted stimuli. Collectively, these results show that face-selective cells differ in their functional characteristics depending on their anatomicofunctional location, suggesting that upright faces are preferably coded by face-selective cells inside but not outside of the fMRI-defined face-selective regions of the posterior IT cortex.

Face categorization in visual scenes may start in a higher order area of the right fusiform gyrus: evidence from dynamic visual stimulation in neuroimaging

2011 ◽  
Vol 106 (5) ◽  
pp. 2720-2736 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fang Jiang ◽  
Laurence Dricot ◽  
Jochen Weber ◽  
Giulia Righi ◽  
Michael J. Tarr ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Face Processing ◽  
Visual Analysis ◽  
Visual Stimulation ◽  
Fusiform Gyrus ◽  
Differential Activation ◽  
Face Area ◽  
Face Categorization ◽  
Visual Scenes ◽  
The Right ◽  
Processing Network

How a visual stimulus is initially categorized as a face by the cortical face-processing network remains largely unclear. In this study we used functional MRI to study the dynamics of face detection in visual scenes by using a paradigm in which scenes containing faces or cars are revealed progressively as they emerge from visual noise. Participants were asked to respond as soon as they detected a face or car during the noise sequence. Among the face-sensitive regions identified based on a standard localizer, a high-level face-sensitive area, the right fusiform face area (FFA), showed the earliest difference between face and car activation. Critically, differential activation in FFA was observed before differential activation in the more posteriorly located occipital face area (OFA). A whole brain analysis confirmed these findings, with a face-sensitive cluster in the right fusiform gyrus being the only cluster showing face preference before successful behavioral detection. Overall, these findings indicate that following generic low-level visual analysis, a face stimulus presented in a gradually revealed visual scene is first detected in the right middle fusiform gyrus, only after which further processing spreads to a network of cortical and subcortical face-sensitive areas (including the posteriorly located OFA). These results provide further evidence for a nonhierarchical organization of the cortical face-processing network.

Face processing in congenitally deaf signers as revealed by fast periodic visual stimulation

2018 ◽  
Vol 131 ◽  
pp. S71-S72
Author(s):  
E. Bednaya ◽  
D. Bottari ◽  
G. Dormal ◽  
A. Villwock ◽  
M. Dzhelyova ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Face Processing ◽  
Visual Stimulation ◽  
Deaf Signers

scholarly journals An objective and reliable electrophysiological marker for implicit trustworthiness perception

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 337-346
Author(s):  
Derek C Swe ◽  
Romina Palermo ◽  
O Scott Gwinn ◽  
Gillian Rhodes ◽  
Markus Neumann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Face Processing ◽  
Neural Activity ◽  
Visual Stimulation ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Face Images ◽  
Neural Signature ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Facial Trustworthiness

Abstract Trustworthiness is assumed to be processed implicitly from faces, despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of research has only involved explicit trustworthiness judgements. To answer the question whether or not trustworthiness processing can be implicit, we apply an electroencephalography fast periodic visual stimulation (FPVS) paradigm, where electrophysiological cortical activity is triggered in synchrony with facial trustworthiness cues, without explicit judgements. Face images were presented at 6 Hz, with facial trustworthiness varying at 1 Hz. Significant responses at 1 Hz were observed, indicating that differences in the trustworthiness of the faces were reflected in the neural signature. These responses were significantly reduced for inverted faces, suggesting that the results are associated with higher order face processing. The neural responses were reliable, and correlated with explicit trustworthiness judgements, suggesting that the technique is capable of picking up on stable individual differences in trustworthiness processing. By demonstrating neural activity associated with implicit trustworthiness judgements, our results contribute to resolving a key theoretical debate. Moreover, our data show that FPVS is a valuable tool to examine face processing at the individual level, with potential application in pre-verbal and clinical populations who struggle with verbalization, understanding or memory.

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