scholarly journals Selective Responses to Faces, Scenes, and Bodies in the Ventral Visual Pathway of Infants

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather Kosakowski ◽  
Michael Cohen ◽  
Atsushi Takahashi ◽  
boris keil ◽  
Nancy Kanwisher ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Pathway ◽  
Fusiform Face Area ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Resonance Imaging ◽  
Body Area ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Face Area ◽  
Extrastriate Body Area ◽  
Ventral Visual Pathway ◽  
Parahippocampal Place Area

Three of the most robust functional landmarks in the human brain are the selective responses to faces in the fusiform face area (FFA), scenes in the parahippocampal place area (PPA), and bodies in the extrastriate body area (EBA). Are the selective responses of these regions present early in development, or do they require many years to develop? Prior evidence leaves this question unresolved. We designed a new 32-channel infant MRI coil, and collected high-quality functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data from infants (2-9 months of age) while they viewed stimuli from four conditions – faces, bodies, objects, and scenes. We find that infants have face-, scene-, and body-selective responses specifically localized to the FFA, PPA, and EBA, respectively, powerfully constraining accounts of cortical development.

High-resolution Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Reveals Configural Processing of Cars in Right Anterior Fusiform Face Area of Car Experts

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (7) ◽  
pp. 973-984 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Ross ◽  
Benjamin J. Tamber-Rosenau ◽  
Thomas J. Palmeri ◽  
JieDong Zhang ◽  
Yaoda Xu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Resonance Imaging ◽  
Magnetic Resonance ◽  
High Resolution ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging ◽  
Fusiform Face Area ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Resonance Imaging ◽  
Activation Patterns ◽  
Face Area ◽  
Neural Selectivity

Visual object expertise correlates with neural selectivity in the fusiform face area (FFA). Although behavioral studies suggest that visual expertise is associated with increased use of holistic and configural information, little is known about the nature of the supporting neural representations. Using high-resolution 7-T functional magnetic resonance imaging, we recorded the multivoxel activation patterns elicited by whole cars, configurally disrupted cars, and car parts in individuals with a wide range of car expertise. A probabilistic support vector machine classifier was trained to differentiate activation patterns elicited by whole car images from activation patterns elicited by misconfigured car images. The classifier was then used to classify new combined activation patterns that were created by averaging activation patterns elicited by individually presented top and bottom car parts. In line with the idea that the configuration of parts is critical to expert visual perception, car expertise was negatively associated with the probability of a combined activation pattern being classified as a whole car in the right anterior FFA, a region critical to vision for categories of expertise. Thus, just as found for faces in normal observers, the neural representation of cars in right anterior FFA is more holistic for car experts than car novices, consistent with common mechanisms of neural selectivity for faces and other objects of expertise in this area.

scholarly journals Reconstructing feedback representations in ventral visual pathway with a generative adversarial autoencoder

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haider Al-Tahan ◽  
Yalda Mohsenzadeh
Keyword(s):  
Neural Network ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Visual Pathway ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Low Level ◽  
Ventral Visual Pathway ◽  
High Level ◽  
Feedback Connections ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Insight Into

AbstractWhile vision evokes a dense network of feedforward and feedback neural processes in the brain, visual processes are primarily modeled with feedforward hierarchical neural networks, leaving the computational role of feedback processes poorly understood. Here, we developed a generative autoencoder neural network model and adversarially trained it on a categorically diverse data set of images. We hypothesized that the feedback processes in the ventral visual pathway can be represented by reconstruction of the visual information performed by the generative model. We compared representational similarity of the activity patterns in the proposed model with temporal (magnetoencephalography) and spatial (functional magnetic resonance imaging) visual brain responses. The proposed generative model identified two segregated neural dynamics in the visual brain. A temporal hierarchy of processes transforming low level visual information into high level semantics in the feedforward sweep, and a temporally later dynamics of inverse processes reconstructing low level visual information from a high level latent representation in the feedback sweep. Our results append to previous studies on neural feedback processes by presenting a new insight into the algorithmic function and the information carried by the feedback processes in the ventral visual pathway.Author summaryIt has been shown that the ventral visual cortex consists of a dense network of regions with feedforward and feedback connections. The feedforward path processes visual inputs along a hierarchy of cortical areas that starts in early visual cortex (an area tuned to low level features e.g. edges/corners) and ends in inferior temporal cortex (an area that responds to higher level categorical contents e.g. faces/objects). Alternatively, the feedback connections modulate neuronal responses in this hierarchy by broadcasting information from higher to lower areas. In recent years, deep neural network models which are trained on object recognition tasks achieved human-level performance and showed similar activation patterns to the visual brain. In this work, we developed a generative neural network model that consists of encoding and decoding sub-networks. By comparing this computational model with the human brain temporal (magnetoencephalography) and spatial (functional magnetic resonance imaging) response patterns, we found that the encoder processes resemble the brain feedforward processing dynamics and the decoder shares similarity with the brain feedback processing dynamics. These results provide an algorithmic insight into the spatiotemporal dynamics of feedforward and feedback processes in biological vision.

scholarly journals Rapid invariant encoding of scene layout in human OPA

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Henriksson ◽  
Marieke Mur ◽  
Nikolaus Kriegeskorte
Keyword(s):  
Human Subjects ◽  
Local Environment ◽  
Visual Navigation ◽  
Image Features ◽  
Response Patterns ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Resonance Imaging ◽  
Fmri Response ◽  
Environmental Geometry ◽  
Parahippocampal Place Area

SUMMARYSuccessful visual navigation requires a sense of the geometry of the local environment. How do our brains extract this information from retinal images? Here we visually presented scenes with all possible combinations of five scene-bounding elements (left, right and back wall, ceiling, floor) to human subjects during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and magnetoencephalography (MEG). The fMRI response patterns in the scene-responsive occipital place area (OPA) reflected scene layout with invariance to changes in surface texture. This result contrasted sharply with the primary visual cortex (V1), which reflected low-level image features of the stimuli, and parahippocampal place area (PPA), which showed better texture than layout decoding. MEG indicated that the texture-invariant scene-layout representation is computed from visual input within ~100 ms, suggesting a rapid computational mechanism. Taken together, these results suggest that the cortical representation underlying our instant sense of the environmental geometry is located in OPA.

scholarly journals Awake fMRI reveals a specialized region in dog temporal cortex for face processing

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel D Dilks ◽  
Peter Cook ◽  
Samuel K Weiller ◽  
Helen P Berns ◽  
Mark H Spivak ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Face Processing ◽  
Temporal Cortex ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Resonance Imaging ◽  
Everyday Objects ◽  
Face Area ◽  
Face Selectivity ◽  
Behavioral Evidence ◽  
Specialized Region ◽  
Human Faces

Recent behavioral evidence suggests that dogs, like humans and monkeys, are capable of visual face recognition. But do dogs also exhibit specialized cortical face regions similar to humans and monkeys? Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in six dogs trained to remain motionless during scanning without restraint or sedation, we found a region in the canine temporal lobe that responded significantly more to movies of human faces than to movies of everyday objects. Next, using a new stimulus set to investigate face selectivity in this predefined candidate dog face area, we found that this region responded similarly to images of human faces and dog faces, yet significantly more to both human and dog faces than to images of objects. Such face selectivity was not found in dog primary visual cortex. Taken together, these findings: 1) provide the first evidence for a face-selective region in the temporal cortex of dogs, which cannot be explained by simple low-level visual feature extraction; 2) reveal that neural machinery dedicated to face processing is not unique to primates; and 3) may help explain dogs’ exquisite sensitivity to human social cues.

Representation of Contextually Related Multiple Objects in the Human Ventral Visual Pathway

2013 ◽  
Vol 25 (8) ◽  
pp. 1261-1269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yiying Song ◽  
Yu L. L. Luo ◽  
Xueting Li ◽  
Miao Xu ◽  
Jia Liu
Keyword(s):  
Perceptual Load ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
Weighted Average ◽  
Visual Pathway ◽  
Natural Scenes ◽  
Multiple Objects ◽  
Face Area ◽  
Ventral Visual Pathway ◽  
The Face ◽  
Representation Scheme

Real-world scenes usually contain a set of cluttered and yet contextually related objects. Here we used fMRI to investigate where and how contextually related multiple objects were represented in the human ventral visual pathway. Specifically, we measured the responses in face-selective and body-selective regions along the ventral pathway when faces and bodies were presented either simultaneously or in isolation. We found that, in the posterior regions, the response for the face and body pair was the weighted average response for faces and bodies presented in isolation. In contrast, the anterior regions encoded the face and body pair in a mutually facilitative fashion, with the response for the pair significantly higher than that for its constituent objects. Furthermore, in the right fusiform face area, the face and body pair was represented as one inseparable object, possibly to reduce perceptual load and increase representation efficiency. Therefore, our study suggests that the visual system uses a hierarchical representation scheme to process multiple objects in natural scenes: the average mechanism in posterior regions helps retaining information of individual objects in clutter, whereas the nonaverage mechanism in the anterior regions uses the contextual information to optimize the representation for multiple objects.

Too Many Trees to See the Forest: Performance, Event-related Potential, and Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Manifestations of Integrative Congenital Prosopagnosia

2007 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 132-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shlomo Bentin ◽  
Joseph M. DeGutis ◽  
Mark D'Esposito ◽  
Lynn C. Robertson
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Resonance Imaging ◽  
Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Resonance Imaging ◽  
Face Area ◽  
Congenital Prosopagnosia ◽  
Brain Correlates ◽  
Face Selectivity

Neuropsychological, event-related potential (ERP), and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) methods were combined to provide a comprehensive description of performance and neurobiological profiles for K.W., a case of congenital prosopagnosia. We demonstrate that K.W.'s visual perception is characterized by almost unprecedented inability to identify faces, a large bias toward local features, and an extreme deficit in global/configural processing that is not confined to faces. This pattern could be appropriately labeled congenital integrative prosopagnosia, and accounts for some, albeit not all, cases of face recognition impairments without identifiable brain lesions. Absence of face selectivity is evident in both biological markers of face processing, fMRI (the fusiform face area [FFA]), and ERPs (N170). Nevertheless, these two neural signatures probably manifest different perceptual mechanisms. Whereas the N170 is triggered by the occurrence of physiognomic stimuli in the visual field, the deficient face-selective fMRI activation in the caudal brain correlates with the severity of global processing deficits. This correlation suggests that the FFA might be associated with global/configural computation, a crucial part of face identification.

scholarly journals Individual face and house-related eye movement patterns distinctively activate FFA and PPA in the absence of faces and houses

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lihui Wang ◽  
Florian Baumgartner ◽  
Falko R. Kaule ◽  
Michael Hanke ◽  
Stefan Pollmann
Keyword(s):  
Pattern Analysis ◽  
Perception And Action ◽  
Fusiform Face Area ◽  
Multivariate Pattern Analysis ◽  
Face Area ◽  
Gaze Patterns ◽  
Visual Areas ◽  
Uniform Background ◽  
Multivariate Pattern ◽  
Parahippocampal Place Area

We investigated if the fusiform face area (FFA) and the parahippocampal place area (PPA) contain a representation of fixation sequences that are typically used when looking at faces or houses. For this purpose, we instructed observers to follow a dot presented on a uniform background. The dot's movements represented gaze paths acquired separately while observers were looking at face or house pictures. Even when gaze dispersion differences were controlled, face- and house-associated gaze patterns could be discriminated by multivariate pattern analysis in the FFA and PPA. The discrimination of face- and house-associated gaze patterns in FFA and PPA was more sensitive for the current observer’s own gazes than for another observer’s gaze. Moreover, the discrimination of the observer’s own gaze patterns was specific to FFA and PPA, but was not observed in early visual areas (V1 – V4) or superior parietal lobule and frontal eye fields. These findings indicate a link between perception and action - the complex gaze patterns that are used to explore faces and houses - in the FFA and PPA.

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 The role of the fusiform face area in social cognition: implications for the pathobiology of autism

2003 ◽  
Vol 358 (1430) ◽  
pp. 415-427 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert T. Schultz ◽  
David J. Grelotti ◽  
Ami Klin ◽  
Jamie Kleinman ◽  
Christiaan Van der Gaag ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Semantic Information ◽  
Fusiform Face Area ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Lateral Aspect ◽  
Face Area ◽  
Temporal Pole ◽  
Human Faces ◽  
Special Relevance

A region in the lateral aspect of the fusiform gyrus (FG) is more engaged by human faces than any other category of image. It has come to be known as the ‘fusiform face area’ (FFA). The origin and extent of this specialization is currently a topic of great interest and debate. This is of special relevance to autism, because recent studies have shown that the FFA is hypoactive to faces in this disorder. In two linked functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies of healthy young adults, we show here that the FFA is engaged by a social attribution task (SAT) involving perception of human–like interactions among three simple geometric shapes. The amygdala, temporal pole, medial prefrontal cortex, inferolateral frontal cortex and superior temporal sulci were also significantly engaged. Activation of the FFA to a task without faces challenges the received view that the FFA is restricted in its activities to the perception of faces. We speculate that abstract semantic information associated with faces is encoded in the FG region and retrieved for social computations. From this perspective, the literature on hypoactivation of the FFA in autism may be interpreted as a reflection of a core social cognitive mechanism underlying the disorder.

scholarly journals Specificity of Action Representations in the Lateral Occipitotemporal Cortex

2006 ◽  
Vol 18 (9) ◽  
pp. 1498-1517 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph W. Kable ◽  
Anjan Chatterjee
Keyword(s):  
Specific Activity ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Human Motion ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Resonance Imaging ◽  
Extrastriate Body Area ◽  
Action Sequences ◽  
Occipitotemporal Cortex ◽  
Increased Activity ◽  
Action Representations

The ability to recognize actions is important for cognitive development and social cognition. Areas in the lateral occipitotemporal cortex show increased activity when subjects view action sequences; however, whether this activity distinguishes between specific actions as necessary for action recognition is unclear. We used a functional magnetic resonance imaging adaptation paradigm to test for brain regions that exhibit action-specific activity. Subjects watched a series of action sequences in which the action performed or the person performing the action could be repeated from a previous scan. Three regions—the superior temporal sulcus (pSTS), human motion-sensitive cortex (MT/MST), and extrastriate body area (EBA)—showed decreased activity for previously seen actions, even when the actions were novel exemplars because the persons involved had not been seen previously. These action-specific adaptation effects provide compelling evidence that representations in the pSTS, MT/MST, and EBA abstract actions from the agents involved and distinguish between different particular actions.

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