Nonpreferred Stimuli Modify the Representation of Faces in the Fusiform Face Area

2011 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 746-756 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vadim Axelrod ◽  
Galit Yovel
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Discrimination Task ◽  
Visual Stimuli ◽  
Modular Organization ◽  
Fusiform Face Area ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Face Area ◽  
Object Categories ◽  
The Face ◽  
Task Irrelevant

The ventral visual cortex has a modular organization in which discrete and well-defined regions show a much stronger response to certain object categories (e.g., faces, bodies) than to other categories. The majority of previous studies have examined the response of these category-selective regions to isolated images of preferred or nonpreferred categories. Thus, little is known about the way these category-selective regions represent more complex visual stimuli, which include both preferred and nonpreferred stimuli. Here we examined whether glasses (nonpreferred) modify the representation of simultaneously presented faces (preferred) in the fusiform face area. We used an event-related fMR-adaptation paradigm in which faces were presented with glasses either on or above the face while subjects performed a face or a glasses discrimination task. Our findings show that the sensitivity of the fusiform face area to glasses was maximal when glasses were presented on the face than above the face during a face discrimination task rather than during a glasses discrimination task. These findings suggest that nonpreferred stimuli may significantly modify the representation of preferred stimuli, even when they are task irrelevant. Future studies will determine whether this interaction is specific to faces or may be found for other object categories in category-selective areas.

scholarly journals The invariance hypothesis implies domain-specific regions in visual cortex

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joel Z. Leibo ◽  
Qianli Liao ◽  
Fabio Anselmi ◽  
Tomaso Poggio
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Recognition System ◽  
General Purpose ◽  
Fusiform Face Area ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Face Area ◽  
Object Categories ◽  
Natural Vision ◽  
Invariance Hypothesis ◽  
Novel Objects

Is visual cortex made up of general-purpose information processing machinery, or does it consist of a collection of specialized modules? If prior knowledge, acquired from learning a set of objects is only transferable to new objects that share properties with the old, then the recognition system's optimal organization must be one containing specialized modules for different object classes. Our analysis starts from a premise we call the invariance hypothesis: that the computational goal of the ventral stream is to compute an invariant-to-transformations and discriminative signature for recognition. The key condition enabling approximate transfer of invariance without sacrificing discriminability turns out to be that the learned and novel objects transform similarly. This implies that the optimal recognition system must contain subsystems trained only with data from similarly-transforming objects and suggests a novel interpretation of domain-specific regions like the fusiform face area (FFA). Furthermore, we can define an index of transformation-compatibility, computable from videos, that can be combined with information about the statistics of natural vision to yield predictions for which object categories ought to have domain-specific regions in agreement with the available data. The result is a unifying account linking the large literature on view-based recognition with the wealth of experimental evidence concerning domain-specific regions.

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.

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.

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 Disentangling the representation of identity from head view along the human face processing pathway

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Swaroop Guntupalli ◽  
Kelsey G. Wheeler ◽  
M. Ida Gobbini
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Frontal Cortex ◽  
Face Perception ◽  
Face Processing ◽  
Visual Features ◽  
Fusiform Face Area ◽  
Invariant Representation ◽  
Face Area ◽  
Early Visual Cortex ◽  
Occipital Face Area

AbstractNeural models of a distributed system for face perception implicate a network of regions in the ventral visual stream for recognition of identity. Here, we report an fMRI neural decoding study in humans that shows that this pathway culminates in a right inferior frontal cortex face area (rIFFA) with a representation of individual identities that has been disentangled from variable visual features in different images of the same person. At earlier stages in the pathway, processing begins in early visual cortex and the occipital face area (OFA) with representations of head view that are invariant across identities, and proceeds to an intermediate level of representation in the fusiform face area (FFA) in which identity is emerging but still entangled with head view. Three-dimensional, view-invariant representation of identities in the rIFFA may be the critical link to the extended system for face perception, affording activation of person knowledge and emotional responses to familiar faces.Significance StatementIn this fMRI decoding experiment, we address how face images are processed in successive stages to disentangle the view-invariant representation of identity from variable visual features. Representations in early visual cortex and the occipital face area distinguish head views, invariant across identities. An intermediate level of representation in the fusiform face area distinguishes identities but still is entangled with head view. The face-processing pathway culminates in the right inferior frontal area with representation of view-independent identity. This paper clarifies the homologies between the human and macaque face processing systems. The findings show further, however, the importance of the inferior frontal cortex in decoding face identity, a result that has not yet been reported in the monkey literature.

scholarly journals Orientation tuning for faces in the Fusiform Face Area and Primary Visual Cortex

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 27-27
Author(s):  
V. Goffaux ◽  
F. Duecker ◽  
C. Schiltz ◽  
R. Goebel
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Primary Visual Cortex ◽  
Orientation Tuning ◽  
Fusiform Face Area ◽  
Face Area

scholarly journals The fusiform face area: a cortical region specialized for the perception of faces

2006 ◽  
Vol 361 (1476) ◽  
pp. 2109-2128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy Kanwisher ◽  
Galit Yovel
Keyword(s):  
Face Perception ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Theoretical Background ◽  
General Purpose ◽  
Cortical Region ◽  
Fusiform Face Area ◽  
Face Inversion Effect ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Face Area ◽  
The Face

Faces are among the most important visual stimuli we perceive, informing us not only about a person's identity, but also about their mood, sex, age and direction of gaze. The ability to extract this information within a fraction of a second of viewing a face is important for normal social interactions and has probably played a critical role in the survival of our primate ancestors. Considerable evidence from behavioural, neuropsychological and neurophysiological investigations supports the hypothesis that humans have specialized cognitive and neural mechanisms dedicated to the perception of faces (the face-specificity hypothesis). Here, we review the literature on a region of the human brain that appears to play a key role in face perception, known as the fusiform face area (FFA). Section 1 outlines the theoretical background for much of this work. The face-specificity hypothesis falls squarely on one side of a longstanding debate in the fields of cognitive science and cognitive neuroscience concerning the extent to which the mind/brain is composed of: (i) special-purpose (‘domain-specific’) mechanisms, each dedicated to processing a specific kind of information (e.g. faces, according to the face-specificity hypothesis), versus (ii) general-purpose (‘domain-general’) mechanisms, each capable of operating on any kind of information. Face perception has long served both as one of the prime candidates of a domain-specific process and as a key target for attack by proponents of domain-general theories of brain and mind. Section 2 briefly reviews the prior literature on face perception from behaviour and neurophysiology. This work supports the face-specificity hypothesis and argues against its domain-general alternatives (the individuation hypothesis, the expertise hypothesis and others). Section 3 outlines the more recent evidence on this debate from brain imaging, focusing particularly on the FFA. We review the evidence that the FFA is selectively engaged in face perception, by addressing (and rebutting) five of the most widely discussed alternatives to this hypothesis. In §4 , we consider recent findings that are beginning to provide clues into the computations conducted in the FFA and the nature of the representations the FFA extracts from faces. We argue that the FFA is engaged both in detecting faces and in extracting the necessary perceptual information to recognize them, and that the properties of the FFA mirror previously identified behavioural signatures of face-specific processing (e.g. the face-inversion effect). Section 5 asks how the computations and representations in the FFA differ from those occurring in other nearby regions of cortex that respond strongly to faces and objects. The evidence indicates clear functional dissociations between these regions, demonstrating that the FFA shows not only functional specificity but also area specificity. We end by speculating in §6 on some of the broader questions raised by current research on the FFA, including the developmental origins of this region and the question of whether faces are unique versus whether similarly specialized mechanisms also exist for other domains of high-level perception and cognition.

The Fusiform “Face Area” is Part of a Network that Processes Faces at the Individual Level

2000 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 495-504 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabel Gauthier ◽  
Michael J. Tarr ◽  
Jill Moylan ◽  
Pawel Skudlarski ◽  
John C. Gore ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Extrastriate Cortex ◽  
Fusiform Face Area ◽  
Repeated Presentation ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Cortical Organization ◽  
Face Area ◽  
Object Categories ◽  
Early Processing ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Detection Processing

According to modular models of cortical organization, many areas of the extrastriate cortex are dedicated to object categories. These models often assume an early processing stage for the detection of category membership. Can functional imaging isolate areas responsible for detection of members of a category, such as faces or letters? We consider whether responses in three different areas (two selective for faces and one selective for letters) support category detection. Activity in these areas habituates to the repeated presentation of one exemplar more than to the presentation of different exemplars of the same category, but only for the category for which the area is selective. Thus, these areas appear to play computational roles more complex than detection, processing stimuli at the individual level. Drawing from prior work, we suggest that face-selective areas may be involved in the perception of faces at the individual level, whereas letter-selective regions may be tuning themselves to font information in order to recognize letters more efficiently.

Functional disconnection between the visual cortex and right fusiform face area in schizophrenia

2019 ◽  
Vol 209 ◽  
pp. 72-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Maher ◽  
T. Ekstrom ◽  
D. Ongur ◽  
D.L. Levy ◽  
D.J. Norton ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Fusiform Face Area ◽  
Face Area

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.

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