Modulation of the Fusiform Face Area following Minimal Exposure to Motivationally Relevant Faces: Evidence of In-group Enhancement (Not Out-group Disregard)

2011 ◽  
Vol 23 (11) ◽  
pp. 3343-3354 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jay J. Van Bavel ◽  
Dominic J. Packer ◽  
William A. Cunningham
Keyword(s):  
Visual Processing ◽  
Group Versus ◽  
Experimental Manipulation ◽  
Task Instruction ◽  
Social Category ◽  
Fusiform Face Area ◽  
Perceptual Cues ◽  
Face Area ◽  
Task Instructions ◽  
Subordinate Level

Studies have shown that fusiform face area (FFA) activity increases with visual expertise. We present an fMRI study showing that faces from a social category made relevant by an experimental manipulation (members of an experimentally created in-group) preferentially recruited the FFA even when they were matched in exposure to face stimuli from a less significant social category (members of an experimentally created out-group). Faces were randomly assigned to groups and fully counterbalanced so that no perceptual cues allowed participants to visually distinguish category membership. The results revealed a pattern of in-group enhancement (not out-group disregard), such that the FFA was selectively engaged following the presentation of in-group compared with out-group or unaffiliated control faces even when the intergroup distinction was arbitrary, and exposure to in-group and out-group faces was equivalent and brief. In addition, individual differences in FFA activity for in-group versus out-group faces were correlated with recognition memory differences for in-group and out-group faces. The effects of group membership on the FFA were not affected by task instruction to respond to in-group or out-group members and were functionally dissociated from early visual processing in the primary visual cortex. This study provides evidence that the FFA is sensitive to top–down influences and may be involved in subordinate level (vs. superordinate level) encoding of stimuli in the absence of long-term exposure or explicit task instructions.

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 Human face-selective cortex does not distinguish between members of a racial outgroup

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niv Reggev ◽  
Kirstan Brodie ◽  
Mina Cikara ◽  
Jason Mitchell
Keyword(s):  
Neural Activity ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Neural Representation ◽  
Human Face ◽  
Fusiform Face Area ◽  
Total N ◽  
Face Area ◽  
Repetition Suppression ◽  
Homogeneity Effect ◽  
Outgroup Homogeneity

People often fail to individuate members of social outgroups, a phenomenon known as the outgroup homogeneity effect. Here, we used fMRI repetition suppression to investigate the neural representation underlying this effect. In a pre-registered study, White human perceivers (N = 29) responded to pairs of faces depicting White or Black targets. In each pair, the second face depicted either the same target as the first face, a different target from the same race, or a scrambled face outline. We localized face-selective neural regions via an independent task, and demonstrated that neural activity in the fusiform face area distinguished different faces only when targets belonged to the perceivers’ racial ingroup (White). By contrast, face-selective cortex did not discriminate between other-race individuals. Moreover, across two studies (total N = 67) perceivers were slower to discriminate between different outgroup members and remembered them to a lesser extent. Together, these results suggest that the outgroup homogeneity effect arises when early-to-mid-level visual processing results in an erroneous overlap of representations of outgroup members.

scholarly journals Frontal contributions to face processing differences in autism: Evidence from fMRI of inverted face processing

2008 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 922-932 ◽  
Author(s):  
SUSAN Y. BOOKHEIMER ◽  
A. TING WANG ◽  
ASHLEY SCOTT ◽  
MARIAN SIGMAN ◽  
MIRELLA DAPRETTO
Keyword(s):  
Face Processing ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Functional Neuroimaging ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Fusiform Face Area ◽  
Social Significance ◽  
Inverted Position ◽  
Face Area ◽  
Reduced Activity

AbstractFunctional neuroimaging studies of face processing deficits in autism have typically focused on visual processing regions, such as the fusiform face area (FFA), which have shown reduced activity in autism spectrum disorders (ASD), though inconsistently. We recently reported reduced activity in the inferior frontal region in ASD, implicating impaired mirror-neuron systems during face processing. In the present study, we used fMRI during a face processing task in which subjects had to match faces presented in the upright versus inverted position. Typically developing (TD) children showed a classic behavioral inversion effect, increased reaction time for inverted faces, while this effect was significantly reduced in ASD subjects. The fMRI data showed similar responses in the fusiform face area for ASD and TD children, with both groups demonstrating increased activation for inverted faces. However, the groups did differ in several brain regions implicated in social cognition, particularly prefrontal cortex and amygdala. These data suggest that the behavioral differences in processing upright versus inverted faces for TD children are related not to visual information processing but to the social significance of the stimuli. Our results are consistent with other recent studies implicating frontal and limbic dysfunction during face processing in autism. (JINS, 2008, 14, 922–932.)

DOES VISUAL SUBORDINATE-LEVEL CATEGORISATION ENGAGE THE FUNCTIONALLY DEFINED FUSIFORM FACE AREA?

2000 ◽  
Vol 17 (1-3) ◽  
pp. 143-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabel Gauthier ◽  
Michael J. Tarr ◽  
Jill Moylan ◽  
Adam W. Anderson ◽  
Pawel Skudlarski ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fusiform Face Area ◽  
Face Area ◽  
Subordinate Level

scholarly journals Holistic processing only? The role of the right fusiform face area in radiological expertise

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (9) ◽  
pp. e0256849
Author(s):  
Ellen M. Kok ◽  
Bettina Sorger ◽  
Koos van Geel ◽  
Andreas Gegenfurtner ◽  
Jeroen J. G. van Merriënboer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Processing ◽  
Image Interpretation ◽  
Holistic Processing ◽  
Fusiform Face Area ◽  
Reasoning Task ◽  
Face Area ◽  
Tentative Evidence ◽  
S Period ◽  
The Right ◽  
Radiological Image

Radiologists can visually detect abnormalities on radiographs within 2s, a process that resembles holistic visual processing of faces. Interestingly, there is empirical evidence using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) for the involvement of the right fusiform face area (FFA) in visual-expertise tasks such as radiological image interpretation. The speed by which stimuli (e.g., faces, abnormalities) are recognized is an important characteristic of holistic processing. However, evidence for the involvement of the right FFA in holistic processing in radiology comes mostly from short or artificial tasks in which the quick, ‘holistic’ mode of diagnostic processing is not contrasted with the slower ‘search-to-find’ mode. In our fMRI study, we hypothesized that the right FFA responds selectively to the ‘holistic’ mode of diagnostic processing and less so to the ‘search-to-find’ mode. Eleven laypeople and 17 radiologists in training diagnosed 66 radiographs in 2s each (holistic mode) and subsequently checked their diagnosis in an extended (10-s) period (search-to-find mode). During data analysis, we first identified individual regions of interest (ROIs) for the right FFA using a localizer task. Then we employed ROI-based ANOVAs and obtained tentative support for the hypothesis that the right FFA shows more activation for radiologists in training versus laypeople, in particular in the holistic mode (i.e., during 2s trials), and less so in the search-to-find mode (i.e., during 10-s trials). No significant correlation was found between diagnostic performance (diagnostic accuracy) and brain-activation level within the right FFA for both, short-presentation and long-presentation diagnostic trials. Our results provide tentative evidence from a diagnostic-reasoning task that the FFA supports the holistic processing of visual stimuli in participants’ expertise domain.

Top-Down Processing and Visual Reorientation Illusions in a Virtual Reality Environment

2004 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 143-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fred W. Mast ◽  
Charles M. Oman
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Line Length ◽  
Perceptual Cues ◽  
Virtual Reality Environment ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Test Conditions ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Processing Mechanisms

The role of top-down processing on the horizontal-vertical line length illusion was examined by means of an ambiguous room with dual visual verticals. In one of the test conditions, the subjects were cued to one of the two verticals and were instructed to cognitively reassign the apparent vertical to the cued orientation. When they have mentally adjusted their perception, two lines in a plus sign configuration appeared and the subjects had to evaluate which line was longer. The results showed that the line length appeared longer when it was aligned with the direction of the vertical currently perceived by the subject. This study provides a demonstration that top-down processing influences lower level visual processing mechanisms. In another test condition, the subjects had all perceptual cues available and the influence was even stronger.

Examining the Effects of Task Instructions to Induce Implicit Theories of Intelligence on a Rational Thinking Task

2017 ◽  
Vol 225 (2) ◽  
pp. 146-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivar Bråten ◽  
Andreas Lien ◽  
John Nietfeld
Keyword(s):  
Implicit Theories ◽  
Male Students ◽  
Task Instruction ◽  
Rational Thinking ◽  
Implicit Theories Of Intelligence ◽  
Entity Theory ◽  
Theories Of Intelligence ◽  
Theory Of Intelligence ◽  
Task Instructions ◽  
Culture Specificity

Abstract. In two experiments with Norwegian undergraduates and one experiment with US undergraduates, we examined the potential effects of brief task instructions aligned with incremental and entity views of intelligence on students’ performance on a rational thinking task. The research demonstrated that even brief one-shot task instructions that deliver a mindset about intelligence intervention can be powerful enough to affect students’ performance on such a task. This was only true for Norwegian male students, however. Moreover, it was the task instruction aligned with an entity theory of intelligence that positively affected Norwegian male students’ performance on the rational thinking task, with this unanticipated finding speaking to the context- and culture-specificity of implicit theories of intelligence interventions.

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