1
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Oishi H, Berezovskii VK, Livingstone MS, Weiner KS, Arcaro MJ. Inferotemporal face patches are histo-architectonically distinct. Cell Rep 2024; 43:114732. [PMID: 39269905 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2024.114732] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/07/2024] [Revised: 08/05/2024] [Accepted: 08/23/2024] [Indexed: 09/15/2024] Open
Abstract
An interconnected group of cortical regions distributed across the primate inferotemporal cortex forms a network critical for face perception. Understanding the microarchitecture of this face network can refine mechanistic accounts of how individual areas function and interact to support visual perception. To address this, we acquire a unique dataset in macaque monkeys combining fMRI to localize face patches in vivo and then ex vivo histology to resolve their histo-architecture across cortical depths in the same individuals. Our findings reveal that face patches differ based on cytochrome oxidase (CO) and, to a lesser extent, myelin staining, with the middle lateral (ML) face patch exhibiting pronounced CO staining. Histo-architectonic differences are less pronounced when using probabilistic definitions of face patches, underscoring the importance of precision mapping integrating in vivo and ex vivo measurements in the same individuals. This study indicates that the macaque face patch network is composed of architectonically distinct components.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hiroki Oishi
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
| | | | | | - Kevin S Weiner
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA; Department of Neuroscience, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA; Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Michael J Arcaro
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
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2
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Palsamudram T, Campbell A, Fry R, Yosef B, Kirsch L, Anderson ND, Verfaellie M, DeGutis J. Face naming and recollection represent key memory deficits in developmental prosopagnosia. Cortex 2024; 180:78-93. [PMID: 39378712 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2024.08.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/05/2023] [Revised: 06/08/2024] [Accepted: 08/27/2024] [Indexed: 10/10/2024]
Abstract
Previous studies have found that face perception deficits do not fully account for the severity of face recognition deficits in developmental prosopagnosia (DP). Researchers have begun identifying deficient memory mechanisms such as impaired face recollection, but these findings require replication, and further characterization of additional memory deficits is necessary. Our goals were to replicate prior findings of face recollection impairment in DP and extend these findings to assess different types of face associative memory. We had 69 DPs and 99 controls perform a face perception battery as well as three face memory tasks: 1) Old/New task with confidence ratings to calculate recollection and familiarity using ROC analysis, 2) Face/Scene task to examine remember-know judgments and contextual memory for faces, and 3) Face-Name/Occupation task to assess the ability to learn semantic associations with faces. Compared to controls, DPs showed poorer recollection and familiarity across both Old/New and Face/Scene tasks as well as reduced scene accuracy for correct faces. Of these differences, only Old/New recollection remained significant after controlling for group differences in face perception abilities. In the Face-Name/Occupation task, after controlling for face perception, DPs showed poorer recall of names than controls but performed similarly in recalling occupations. Finally, we found that DPs with major, mild, and no face perception deficits showed consistent impairments in Old/New recollection and face-naming, and larger perceptual deficits were associated with larger memory deficits. Together, these results provide several mechanistic insights into the nature of memory deficits in DPs and have diagnostic and treatment implications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tanvi Palsamudram
- Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston MA, USA; Boston Attention and Learning Laboratory, VA Boston Healthcare System, Boston MA, USA; Department of Neuroscience, Brown University, Providence RI, USA
| | - Alison Campbell
- Boston Attention and Learning Laboratory, VA Boston Healthcare System, Boston MA, USA; Department of Psychiatry, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston MA, USA
| | - Regan Fry
- Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston MA, USA; Boston Attention and Learning Laboratory, VA Boston Healthcare System, Boston MA, USA
| | - Bar Yosef
- Department of Neurology, University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine, USA
| | - Leah Kirsch
- Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston MA, USA; Boston Attention and Learning Laboratory, VA Boston Healthcare System, Boston MA, USA
| | - Nicole D Anderson
- Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Academy for Research and Education, Toronto, ON, Canada; Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry, University of Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Mieke Verfaellie
- Memory Disorders Research Center, VA Boston Healthcare System, Boston MA, USA; Department of Psychiatry, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston MA, USA
| | - Joseph DeGutis
- Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston MA, USA; Boston Attention and Learning Laboratory, VA Boston Healthcare System, Boston MA, USA.
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3
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Angelini L, Jacques C, Maillard L, Colnat-Coulbois S, Rossion B, Jonas J. Bidirectional and Cross-Hemispheric Modulations of Face-Selective Neural Activity Induced by Electrical Stimulation within the Human Cortical Face Network. Brain Sci 2024; 14:906. [PMID: 39335402 PMCID: PMC11429542 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci14090906] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/19/2024] [Revised: 08/08/2024] [Accepted: 08/26/2024] [Indexed: 09/30/2024] Open
Abstract
A major scientific objective of cognitive neuroscience is to define cortico-cortical functional connections supporting cognitive functions. Here, we use an original approach combining frequency-tagging and direct electrical stimulation (DES) to test for bidirectional and cross-hemispheric category-specific modulations within the human cortical face network. A unique patient bilaterally implanted with depth electrodes in multiple face-selective cortical regions of the ventral occipito-temporal cortex (VOTC) was shown 70 s sequences of variable natural object images at a 6 Hz rate, objectively identifying deviant face-selective neural activity at 1.2 Hz (i.e., every five images). Concurrent electrical stimulation was separately applied for 10 seconds on four independently defined face-selective sites in the right and left VOTC. Upon stimulation, we observed reduced or even abolished face-selective neural activity locally and, most interestingly, at distant VOTC recording sites. Remote DES effects were found up to the anterior temporal lobe (ATL) in both forward and backward directions along the VOTC, as well as across the two hemispheres. This reduction was specific to face-selective neural activity, with the general 6 Hz visual response being mostly unaffected. Overall, these results shed light on the functional connectivity of the cortical face-selective network, supporting its non-hierarchical organization as well as bidirectional effective category-selective connections between posterior 'core' regions and the ATL. They also pave the way for widespread and systematic development of this approach to better understand the functional and effective connectivity of human brain networks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Luna Angelini
- Université de Lorraine, IMoPA, UMR CNRS 7365, F-54000 Nancy, France; (L.A.)
| | - Corentin Jacques
- Université de Lorraine, IMoPA, UMR CNRS 7365, F-54000 Nancy, France; (L.A.)
| | - Louis Maillard
- Université de Lorraine, IMoPA, UMR CNRS 7365, F-54000 Nancy, France; (L.A.)
- Université de Lorraine, CHRU-Nancy, Service de Neurologie, F-54000 Nancy, France
| | - Sophie Colnat-Coulbois
- Université de Lorraine, IMoPA, UMR CNRS 7365, F-54000 Nancy, France; (L.A.)
- Université de Lorraine, CHRU-Nancy, Service de Neurochirurgie, F-54000 Nancy, France
| | - Bruno Rossion
- Université de Lorraine, IMoPA, UMR CNRS 7365, F-54000 Nancy, France; (L.A.)
- Université de Lorraine, CHRU-Nancy, Service de Neurologie, F-54000 Nancy, France
| | - Jacques Jonas
- Université de Lorraine, IMoPA, UMR CNRS 7365, F-54000 Nancy, France; (L.A.)
- Université de Lorraine, CHRU-Nancy, Service de Neurologie, F-54000 Nancy, France
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4
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Engfors LM, Wilmer J, Palermo R, Gignac GE, Germine LT, Jeffery L. Face recognition's practical relevance: Social bonds, not social butterflies. Cognition 2024; 250:105816. [PMID: 38908305 PMCID: PMC11445692 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2024.105816] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/02/2023] [Revised: 12/22/2023] [Accepted: 05/14/2024] [Indexed: 06/24/2024]
Abstract
Research on individual differences in face recognition has provided important foundational insights: their broad range, cognitive specificity, strong heritability, and resilience to change. Elusive, however, has been the key issue of practical relevance: do these individual differences correlate with aspects of life that go beyond the recognition of faces, per se? Though often assumed, especially in social realms, such correlates remain largely theoretical, without empirical support. Here, we investigate an array of potential social correlates of face recognition. We establish social relationship quality as a reproducible correlate. This link generalises across face recognition tasks and across independent samples. In contrast, we detect no robust association with the sheer quantity of social connections, whether measured directly via number of social contacts or indirectly via extraversion-related personality indices. These findings document the existence of a key social correlate of face recognition and provide some of the first evidence to support its practical relevance. At the same time, they challenge the naive assumption that face recognition relates equally to all social outcomes. In contrast, they suggest a focused link of face recognition to the quality, not quantity, of one's social connections.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura M Engfors
- Justice and Society, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA, Australia; School of Psychological Science, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia.
| | - Jeremy Wilmer
- Department of Psychology, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA, USA
| | - Romina Palermo
- School of Psychological Science, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia
| | - Gilles E Gignac
- School of Psychological Science, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia
| | - Laura T Germine
- Institute for Technology in Psychiatry, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, USA; Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Linda Jeffery
- School of Psychological Science, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia
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5
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Sgadò P, Pross A, Lamanna J, Adiletta A. Face processing in animal models: implications for autism spectrum disorder. Front Neurosci 2024; 18:1462272. [PMID: 39184326 PMCID: PMC11341390 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2024.1462272] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/09/2024] [Accepted: 07/29/2024] [Indexed: 08/27/2024] Open
Abstract
Processing facial features is crucial to identify social partners (prey, predators, or conspecifics) and recognize and accurately interpret emotional expressions. Numerous studies in both human and non-human primates provided evidence promoting the notion of inherent mechanisms for detecting facial features. These mechanisms support a representation of faces independent of prior experiences and are vital for subsequent development in social and language domains. Moreover, deficits in processing faces are a reliable biomarker of autism spectrum disorder, appearing early and correlating with symptom severity. Face processing, however, is not only a prerogative of humans: other species also show remarkable face detection abilities. In this review, we present an overview of the current literature on face detection in vertebrate models that could be relevant to the study of autism.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paola Sgadò
- Center for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento, Rovereto, Italy
| | - Alessandra Pross
- Center for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento, Rovereto, Italy
| | - Jacopo Lamanna
- Center for Behavioral Neuroscience and Communication (BNC), Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy
- Faculty of Psychology, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy
| | - Alice Adiletta
- Center for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento, Rovereto, Italy
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6
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Volfart A, Rossion B. The neuropsychological evaluation of face identity recognition. Neuropsychologia 2024; 198:108865. [PMID: 38522782 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2024.108865] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/19/2023] [Revised: 03/14/2024] [Accepted: 03/18/2024] [Indexed: 03/26/2024]
Abstract
Facial identity recognition (FIR) is arguably the ultimate form of recognition for the adult human brain. Even if the term prosopagnosia is reserved for exceptionally rare brain-damaged cases with a category-specific abrupt loss of FIR at adulthood, subjective and objective impairments or difficulties of FIR are common in the neuropsychological population. Here we provide a critical overview of the evaluation of FIR both for clinicians and researchers in neuropsychology. FIR impairments occur following many causes that should be identified objectively by both general and specific, behavioral and neural examinations. We refute the commonly used dissociation between perceptual and memory deficits/tests for FIR, since even a task involving the discrimination of unfamiliar face images presented side-by-side relies on cortical memories of faces in the right-lateralized ventral occipito-temporal cortex. Another frequently encountered confusion is between specific deficits of the FIR function and a more general impairment of semantic memory (of people), the latter being most often encountered following anterior temporal lobe damage. Many computerized tests aimed at evaluating FIR have appeared over the last two decades, as reviewed here. However, despite undeniable strengths, they often suffer from ecological limitations, difficulties of instruction, as well as a lack of consideration for processing speed and qualitative information. Taking into account these issues, a recently developed behavioral test with natural images manipulating face familiarity, stimulus inversion, and correct response times as a key variable appears promising. The measurement of electroencephalographic (EEG) activity in the frequency domain from fast periodic visual stimulation also appears as a particularly promising tool to complete and enhance the neuropsychological assessment of FIR.
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Affiliation(s)
- Angélique Volfart
- School of Psychology and Counselling, Faculty of Health, Queensland University of Technology, Australia.
| | - Bruno Rossion
- Centre for Biomedical Technologies, Queensland University of Technology, Australia; Université de Lorraine, CNRS, IMoPA, F-54000, Nancy, France.
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7
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Djambazovska S, Zafer A, Ramezanpour H, Kreiman G, Kar K. The Impact of Scene Context on Visual Object Recognition: Comparing Humans, Monkeys, and Computational Models. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.05.27.596127. [PMID: 38854011 PMCID: PMC11160639 DOI: 10.1101/2024.05.27.596127] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/11/2024]
Abstract
During natural vision, we rarely see objects in isolation but rather embedded in rich and complex contexts. Understanding how the brain recognizes objects in natural scenes by integrating contextual information remains a key challenge. To elucidate neural mechanisms compatible with human visual processing, we need an animal model that behaves similarly to humans, so that inferred neural mechanisms can provide hypotheses relevant to the human brain. Here we assessed whether rhesus macaques could model human context-driven object recognition by quantifying visual object identification abilities across variations in the amount, quality, and congruency of contextual cues. Behavioral metrics revealed strikingly similar context-dependent patterns between humans and monkeys. However, neural responses in the inferior temporal (IT) cortex of monkeys that were never explicitly trained to discriminate objects in context, as well as current artificial neural network models, could only partially explain this cross-species correspondence. The shared behavioral variance unexplained by context-naive neural data or computational models highlights fundamental knowledge gaps. Our findings demonstrate an intriguing alignment of human and monkey visual object processing that defies full explanation by either brain activity in a key visual region or state-of-the-art models.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sara Djambazovska
- York University, Department of Biology and Centre for Vision Research, Toronto, Canada
- Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, MA, USA
| | - Anaa Zafer
- York University, Department of Biology and Centre for Vision Research, Toronto, Canada
| | - Hamidreza Ramezanpour
- York University, Department of Biology and Centre for Vision Research, Toronto, Canada
| | | | - Kohitij Kar
- York University, Department of Biology and Centre for Vision Research, Toronto, Canada
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8
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Kobylkov D, Vallortigara G. Face detection mechanisms: Nature vs. nurture. Front Neurosci 2024; 18:1404174. [PMID: 38812973 PMCID: PMC11133589 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2024.1404174] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/20/2024] [Accepted: 05/02/2024] [Indexed: 05/31/2024] Open
Abstract
For many animals, faces are a vitally important visual stimulus. Hence, it is not surprising that face perception has become a very popular research topic in neuroscience, with ca. 2000 papers published every year. As a result, significant progress has been made in understanding the intricate mechanisms underlying this phenomenon. However, the ontogeny of face perception, in particular the role of innate predispositions, remains largely unexplored at the neural level. Several influential studies in monkeys have suggested that seeing faces is necessary for the development of the face-selective brain domains. At the same time, behavioural experiments with newborn human babies and newly-hatched domestic chicks demonstrate that a spontaneous preference towards faces emerges early in life without pre-existing experience. Moreover, we were recently able to record face-selective neural responses in the brain of young, face-naïve chicks, thus demonstrating the existence of an innate face detection mechanism. In this review, we discuss these seemingly contradictory results and propose potential experimental approaches to resolve some of the open questions.
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Murray L. Ape recognition of familiar human faces changed by time and COVID-19 face masks. Heliyon 2024; 10:e27876. [PMID: 38586329 PMCID: PMC10998057 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e27876] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/20/2023] [Revised: 02/29/2024] [Accepted: 03/07/2024] [Indexed: 04/09/2024] Open
Abstract
Reports of primates being able to recognise familiar humans are rare in the literature and tend to be regarded as anecdotal. The COVID-19 pandemic created two unique conditions facilitating the observation of spontaneous face recognition in zoo apes: i) lengthy gaps in contact with human visitors due to lockdowns and zoo closures, and ii) the wearing of face masks obscuring at least half the face of familiar individuals. Here, I report on the historical context of the familiarity between a primatologist and individual apes of two species, how those apes consistently showed recognition of this particular human over a time span of up to thirty years, how facial recognition was extended to family members, and how recognition persisted even when a significant portion of the face was obscured by a mask. This constitutes, to my knowledge, the first documented cases of recognition of familiar human faces changed by time and COVID-19 face masks in two great ape species. Although based on just two individuals, the documentation of this ability is important because it arose in a more naturalistic and spontaneous context compared to typical face processing research in which primates are tested with experimental stimuli in a laboratory setting. Implications for face processing theory and applications for the therapeutic utility of faces are discussed. These observations provide insight into the evolutionary origins of face recognition and, sitting at the interface of science and society, are of interest to a wide audience.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lindsay Murray
- School of Psychology, University of Chester, Chester, CH1 4BJ, UK
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10
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Rossion B, Jacques C, Jonas J. The anterior fusiform gyrus: The ghost in the cortical face machine. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2024; 158:105535. [PMID: 38191080 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2024.105535] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/21/2023] [Revised: 12/19/2023] [Accepted: 01/03/2024] [Indexed: 01/10/2024]
Abstract
Face-selective regions in the human ventral occipito-temporal cortex (VOTC) have been defined for decades mainly with functional magnetic resonance imaging. This face-selective VOTC network is traditionally divided in a posterior 'core' system thought to subtend face perception, and regions of the anterior temporal lobe as a semantic memory component of an extended general system. In between these two putative systems lies the anterior fusiform gyrus and surrounding sulci, affected by magnetic susceptibility artifacts. Here we suggest that this methodological gap overlaps with and contributes to a conceptual gap between (visual) perception and semantic memory for faces. Filling this gap with intracerebral recordings and direct electrical stimulation reveals robust face-selectivity in the anterior fusiform gyrus and a crucial role of this region, especially in the right hemisphere, in identity recognition for both familiar and unfamiliar faces. Based on these observations, we propose an integrated theoretical framework for human face (identity) recognition according to which face-selective regions in the anterior fusiform gyrus join the dots between posterior and anterior cortical face memories.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bruno Rossion
- Université de Lorraine, CNRS, IMoPA, F-54000 Nancy, France; Université de Lorraine, CHRU-Nancy, Service de Neurologie, F-54000 Nancy, France.
| | | | - Jacques Jonas
- Université de Lorraine, CNRS, IMoPA, F-54000 Nancy, France; Université de Lorraine, CHRU-Nancy, Service de Neurologie, F-54000 Nancy, France
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11
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Hagen S, Laguesse R, Rossion B. Extensive Visual Training in Adulthood Reduces an Implicit Neural Marker of the Face Inversion Effect. Brain Sci 2024; 14:146. [PMID: 38391720 PMCID: PMC10886861 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci14020146] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/15/2023] [Revised: 01/16/2024] [Accepted: 01/26/2024] [Indexed: 02/24/2024] Open
Abstract
Face identity recognition (FIR) in humans is supported by specialized neural processes whose function is spectacularly impaired when simply turning a face upside-down: the face inversion effect (FIE). While the FIE appears to have a slow developmental course, little is known about the plasticity of the neural processes involved in this effect-and in FIR in general-at adulthood. Here, we investigate whether extensive training (2 weeks, ~16 h) in young human adults discriminating a large set of unfamiliar inverted faces can reduce an implicit neural marker of the FIE for a set of entirely novel faces. In all, 28 adult observers were trained to individuate 30 inverted face identities presented under different depth-rotated views. Following training, we replicate previous behavioral reports of a significant reduction (56% relative accuracy rate) in the behavioral FIE as measured with a challenging four-alternative delayed-match-to-sample task for individual faces across depth-rotated views. Most importantly, using EEG together with a validated frequency tagging approach to isolate a neural index of FIR, we observe the same substantial (56%) reduction in the neural FIE at the expected occipito-temporal channels. The reduction in the neural FIE correlates with the reduction in the behavioral FIE at the individual participant level. Overall, we provide novel evidence suggesting a substantial degree of plasticity in processes that are key for face identity recognition in the adult human brain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Simen Hagen
- Université de Lorraine, CNRS, IMoPA, F-54000 Nancy, France
| | - Renaud Laguesse
- Psychological Sciences Research Institute, UCLouvain, 1348 Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium
| | - Bruno Rossion
- Université de Lorraine, CNRS, IMoPA, F-54000 Nancy, France
- Université de Lorraine, CHRU-Nancy, Service de Neurologie, F-54000 Nancy, France
- Université de Lorraine, CHRU-Nancy, Service de Neurochirurgie, F-54000 Nancy, France
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12
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Yan X, Volfart A, Rossion B. A neural marker of the human face identity familiarity effect. Sci Rep 2023; 13:16294. [PMID: 37770466 PMCID: PMC10539293 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-40852-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/23/2023] [Accepted: 08/16/2023] [Indexed: 09/30/2023] Open
Abstract
Human adults associate different views of an identity much better for familiar than for unfamiliar faces. However, a robust and consistent neural index of this behavioral face identity familiarity effect (FIFE)-not found in non-human primate species-is lacking. Here we provide such a neural FIFE index, measured implicitly and with one fixation per face. Fourteen participants viewed 70 s stimulation sequences of a large set (n = 40) of widely variable natural images of a face identity at a rate of 6 images/second (6 Hz). Different face identities appeared every 5th image (1.2 Hz). In a sequence, face images were either familiar (i.e., famous) or unfamiliar, participants performing a non-periodic task unrelated to face recognition. The face identity recognition response identified at 1.2 Hz over occipital-temporal regions in the frequency-domain electroencephalogram was 3.4 times larger for familiar than unfamiliar faces. The neural response to familiar faces-which emerged at about 180 ms following face onset-was significant in each individual but a case of prosopdysgnosia. Besides potential clinical and forensic applications to implicitly measure one's knowledge of a face identity, these findings open new perspectives to clarify the neurofunctional source of the FIFE and understand the nature of human face identity recognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaoqian Yan
- Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-Inspired Intelligence, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433, China
- Université de Lorraine, CNRS, 54000, Nancy, France
- Psychological Sciences Research Institute, Université Catholique de Louvain, 1348, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
| | - Angélique Volfart
- Université de Lorraine, CNRS, 54000, Nancy, France
- Psychological Sciences Research Institute, Université Catholique de Louvain, 1348, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
- Faculty of Health, School of Psychology and Counselling, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, 4059, Australia
| | - Bruno Rossion
- Université de Lorraine, CNRS, 54000, Nancy, France.
- Psychological Sciences Research Institute, Université Catholique de Louvain, 1348, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.
- Université de Lorraine, CHRU-Nancy, Service de Neurologie, 54000, Nancy, France.
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13
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Laurent MA, Audurier P, De Castro V, Gao X, Durand JB, Jonas J, Rossion B, Cottereau BR. Towards an optimization of functional localizers in non-human primate neuroimaging with (fMRI) frequency-tagging. Neuroimage 2023; 270:119959. [PMID: 36822249 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2023.119959] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/09/2022] [Revised: 02/16/2023] [Accepted: 02/20/2023] [Indexed: 02/25/2023] Open
Abstract
Non-human primate (NHP) neuroimaging can provide essential insights into the neural basis of human cognitive functions. While functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) localizers can play an essential role in reaching this objective (Russ et al., 2021), they often differ substantially across species in terms of paradigms, measured signals, and data analysis, biasing the comparisons. Here we introduce a functional frequency-tagging face localizer for NHP imaging, successfully developed in humans and outperforming standard face localizers (Gao et al., 2018). FMRI recordings were performed in two awake macaques. Within a rapid 6 Hz stream of natural non-face objects images, human or monkey face stimuli were presented in bursts every 9 s. We also included control conditions with phase-scrambled versions of all images. As in humans, face-selective activity was objectively identified and quantified at the peak of the face-stimulation frequency (0.111 Hz) and its second harmonic (0.222 Hz) in the Fourier domain. Focal activations with a high signal-to-noise ratio were observed in regions previously described as face-selective, mainly in the STS (clusters PL, ML, MF; also, AL, AF), both for human and monkey faces. Robust face-selective activations were also found in the prefrontal cortex of one monkey (PVL and PO clusters). Face-selective neural activity was highly reliable and excluded all contributions from low-level visual cues contained in the amplitude spectrum of the stimuli. These observations indicate that fMRI frequency-tagging provides a highly valuable approach to objectively compare human and monkey visual recognition systems within the same framework.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Pauline Audurier
- Centre de Recherche Cerveau et Cognition, Université Toulouse 3 Paul Sabatier, CNRS, 31052 Toulouse, France
| | - Vanessa De Castro
- Centre de Recherche Cerveau et Cognition, Université Toulouse 3 Paul Sabatier, CNRS, 31052 Toulouse, France
| | - Xiaoqing Gao
- Center for Psychological Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou City, China
| | - Jean-Baptiste Durand
- Centre de Recherche Cerveau et Cognition, Université Toulouse 3 Paul Sabatier, CNRS, 31052 Toulouse, France
| | - Jacques Jonas
- Université de Lorraine, CNRS, CRAN, F-54000 Nancy, France; Universite de Lorraine, CHRU-Nancy, Service de neurologie, F-54000, France
| | - Bruno Rossion
- Université de Lorraine, CNRS, CRAN, F-54000 Nancy, France
| | - Benoit R Cottereau
- Centre de Recherche Cerveau et Cognition, Université Toulouse 3 Paul Sabatier, CNRS, 31052 Toulouse, France.
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14
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Rossion B, Jacques C, Jonas J. Intracerebral Electrophysiological Recordings to Understand the Neural Basis of Human Face Recognition. Brain Sci 2023; 13:354. [PMID: 36831897 PMCID: PMC9954066 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci13020354] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/31/2022] [Revised: 02/09/2023] [Accepted: 02/10/2023] [Indexed: 02/22/2023] Open
Abstract
Understanding how the human brain recognizes faces is a primary scientific goal in cognitive neuroscience. Given the limitations of the monkey model of human face recognition, a key approach in this endeavor is the recording of electrophysiological activity with electrodes implanted inside the brain of human epileptic patients. However, this approach faces a number of challenges that must be overcome for meaningful scientific knowledge to emerge. Here we synthesize a 10 year research program combining the recording of intracerebral activity (StereoElectroEncephaloGraphy, SEEG) in the ventral occipito-temporal cortex (VOTC) of large samples of participants and fast periodic visual stimulation (FPVS), to objectively define, quantify, and characterize the neural basis of human face recognition. These large-scale studies reconcile the wide distribution of neural face recognition activity with its (right) hemispheric and regional specialization and extend face-selectivity to anterior regions of the VOTC, including the ventral anterior temporal lobe (VATL) typically affected by magnetic susceptibility artifacts in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Clear spatial dissociations in category-selectivity between faces and other meaningful stimuli such as landmarks (houses, medial VOTC regions) or written words (left lateralized VOTC) are found, confirming and extending neuroimaging observations while supporting the validity of the clinical population tested to inform about normal brain function. The recognition of face identity - arguably the ultimate form of recognition for the human brain - beyond mere differences in physical features is essentially supported by selective populations of neurons in the right inferior occipital gyrus and the lateral portion of the middle and anterior fusiform gyrus. In addition, low-frequency and high-frequency broadband iEEG signals of face recognition appear to be largely concordant in the human association cortex. We conclude by outlining the challenges of this research program to understand the neural basis of human face recognition in the next 10 years.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bruno Rossion
- CNRS, CRAN, Université de Lorraine, F-54000 Nancy, France
- Service de Neurologie, Université de Lorraine, CHRU-Nancy, F-54000 Nancy, France
- Psychological Sciences Research Institute (IPSY), Université Catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain), 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
| | - Corentin Jacques
- Psychological Sciences Research Institute (IPSY), Université Catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain), 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
| | - Jacques Jonas
- CNRS, CRAN, Université de Lorraine, F-54000 Nancy, France
- Service de Neurologie, Université de Lorraine, CHRU-Nancy, F-54000 Nancy, France
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15
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Elson R, Schluppeck D, Johnston A. fMRI evidence that hyper-caricatured faces activate object-selective cortex. Front Psychol 2023; 13:1035524. [PMID: 36710782 PMCID: PMC9878608 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1035524] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/02/2022] [Accepted: 12/20/2022] [Indexed: 01/13/2023] Open
Abstract
Many brain imaging studies have looked at the cortical responses to object categories and faces. A popular way to manipulate face stimuli is by using a "face space," a high dimensional representation of individual face images, with the average face located at the origin. However, how the brain responds to faces that deviate substantially from average has not been much explored. Increasing the distance from the average (leading to increased caricaturing) could increase neural responses in face-selective regions, an idea supported by results from non-human primates. Here, we used a face space based on principal component analysis (PCA) to generate faces ranging from average to heavily caricatured. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we first independently defined face-, object- and scene-selective areas with a localiser scan and then measured responses to parametrically caricatured faces. We also included conditions in which the images of faces were inverted. Interestingly in the right fusiform face area (FFA), we found that the patterns of fMRI response were more consistent as caricaturing increased. However, we found no consistent effect of either caricature level or facial inversion on the average fMRI response in the FFA or face-selective regions more broadly. In contrast, object-selective regions showed an increase in both the consistency of response pattern and the average fMRI response with increasing caricature level. This shows that caricatured faces recruit processing from regions typically defined as object-selective, possibly through enhancing low-level properties that are characteristic of objects.
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16
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Maratos FA, Chu K, Lipka S, Stupple EJN, Parente F. Exploring pattern recognition: what is the relationship between the recognition of words, faces and other objects? Cogn Process 2023; 24:59-70. [PMID: 36376612 PMCID: PMC9898371 DOI: 10.1007/s10339-022-01111-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/19/2021] [Accepted: 10/04/2022] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Debate surrounds processes of visual recognition, with no consensus as to whether recognition of distinct object categories (faces, bodies, cars, and words) is domain specific or subserved by domain-general visual recognition mechanisms. Here, we investigated correlations between the performance of 74 participants on recognition tasks for words, faces and other object categories. Participants completed a counter-balanced test battery of the Cambridge Face, Car and Body Parts Memory tests, as well as a standard four category lexical decision task, with response time and recognition accuracy as dependent variables. Results revealed significant correlations across domains for both recognition accuracy and response time, providing some support for domain-general pattern recognition. Further exploration of the data using principal component analysis (PCA) revealed a two-component model for both the response time and accuracy data. However, how the various word and object recognition tasks fitted these components varied considerably but did hint at familiarity/expertise as a common factor. In sum, we argue a complex relationship exists between domain-specific processing and domain-general processing, but that this is shaped by expertise. To further our understanding of pattern recognition, research investigating the recognition of words, faces and other objects in dyslexic individuals is recommended, as is research exploiting neuroimaging methodologies, with excellent temporal resolution, to chart the temporal specifics of different forms of visual pattern recognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- F. A. Maratos
- School of Psychology, College of Health, Psychology and Social Care, University of Derby, Derby, UK
| | - K. Chu
- Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China
| | - S. Lipka
- School of Psychology, College of Health, Psychology and Social Care, University of Derby, Derby, UK
| | - E. J. N. Stupple
- School of Psychology, College of Health, Psychology and Social Care, University of Derby, Derby, UK
| | - F. Parente
- School of Psychology, College of Health, Psychology and Social Care, University of Derby, Derby, UK
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17
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Thome I, García Alanis JC, Volk J, Vogelbacher C, Steinsträter O, Jansen A. Let's face it: The lateralization of the face perception network as measured with fMRI is not clearly right dominant. Neuroimage 2022; 263:119587. [PMID: 36031183 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119587] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/16/2022] [Revised: 08/17/2022] [Accepted: 08/22/2022] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
The neural face perception network is distributed across both hemispheres. However, the dominant role in humans is virtually unanimously attributed to the right hemisphere. Interestingly, there are, to our knowledge, no imaging studies that systematically describe the distribution of hemispheric lateralization in the core system of face perception across subjects in large cohorts so far. To address this, we determined the hemispheric lateralization of all core system regions (i.e., occipital face area (OFA), fusiform face area (FFA), posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS)) in 108 healthy subjects using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We were particularly interested in the variability of hemispheric lateralization across subjects and explored how many subjects can be classified as right-dominant based on the fMRI activation pattern. We further assessed lateralization differences between different regions of the core system and analyzed the influence of handedness and sex on the lateralization with a generalized mixed effects regression model. As expected, brain activity was on average stronger in right-hemispheric brain regions than in their left-hemispheric homologues. This asymmetry was, however, only weakly pronounced in comparison to other lateralized brain functions (such as language and spatial attention) and strongly varied between individuals. Only half of the subjects in the present study could be classified as right-hemispheric dominant. Additionally, we did not detect significant lateralization differences between core system regions. Our data did also not support a general leftward shift of hemispheric lateralization in left-handers. Only the interaction of handedness and sex in the FFA revealed that specifically left-handed men were significantly more left-lateralized compared to right-handed males. In essence, our fMRI data did not support a clear right-hemispheric dominance of the face perception network. Our findings thus ultimately question the dogma that the face perception network - as measured with fMRI - can be characterized as "typically right lateralized".
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Affiliation(s)
- Ina Thome
- Laboratory for Multimodal Neuroimaging, Department of Psychiatry, University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany; Center for Mind, Brain and Behavior (CMBB), University of Marburg and Justus Liebig University Giessen, Marburg, Germany.
| | - José C García Alanis
- Center for Mind, Brain and Behavior (CMBB), University of Marburg and Justus Liebig University Giessen, Marburg, Germany; Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany; Analysis and Modeling of Complex Data Lab, Institute of Psychology, University of Mainz, Mainz, Germany
| | - Jannika Volk
- Laboratory for Multimodal Neuroimaging, Department of Psychiatry, University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany; Center for Mind, Brain and Behavior (CMBB), University of Marburg and Justus Liebig University Giessen, Marburg, Germany
| | - Christoph Vogelbacher
- Laboratory for Multimodal Neuroimaging, Department of Psychiatry, University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany; Center for Mind, Brain and Behavior (CMBB), University of Marburg and Justus Liebig University Giessen, Marburg, Germany
| | - Olaf Steinsträter
- Core-Facility BrainImaging, Faculty of Medicine, University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany
| | - Andreas Jansen
- Laboratory for Multimodal Neuroimaging, Department of Psychiatry, University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany; Center for Mind, Brain and Behavior (CMBB), University of Marburg and Justus Liebig University Giessen, Marburg, Germany; Core-Facility BrainImaging, Faculty of Medicine, University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany.
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18
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Peykarjou S, Langeloh M, Baccolo E, Rossion B, Pauen S. Superior neural individuation of mother's than stranger's faces by five months of age. Cortex 2022; 155:264-276. [PMID: 36044787 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2022.07.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/25/2021] [Revised: 12/22/2021] [Accepted: 07/07/2022] [Indexed: 01/23/2023]
Abstract
Human adults are better at recognizing different views of a given face as belonging to the same person when that person is familiar rather than unfamiliar. To clarify the developmental origin of this well-established phenomenon, one group of five-month-olds (N = 22) was presented with pictures of four different unfamiliar female faces at a fixed rate (6 Hz, 166 msec stimulus onset asynchrony), interrupted every 5th stimulus (1.2 Hz) by either their mother's face (mother oddball condition) or, in different stimulation sequences, a stranger's face (stranger oddball condition). In another group of five-month-olds (N = 17), stimulation sequences were reversed such that their mothers' or a given stranger's face were repeated at 6 Hz and interrupted every 5 stimuli by pictures of different female faces (mother standard, stranger standard conditions, respectively). Twelve variable images of each identity served as stimulus material. Besides clear frequency-tagged EEG responses at the 6 Hz stimulation rate over the medial occipital region in all conditions, significant activity at 1.2 Hz and harmonics (2.4 Hz, etc.) was observed in this region, reflecting selective responses to facial identity across changes of views. This effect was strongest when the mother's face was immediately repeated at every stimulation cycle (mother standard). Overall, these observations point to an early developmental advantage of identifying a familiar face presented from different views during immediate stimulus repetition.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Miriam Langeloh
- Department of Psychology, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany; Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Elisa Baccolo
- Università Degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
| | - Bruno Rossion
- Université de Lorraine, CNRS, CRAN, Nancy, France; Université de Lorraine, CHRU-Nancy, Service de Neurologie, Nancy, France
| | - Sabina Pauen
- Department of Psychology, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany
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19
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Palmer CJ, Goddard E, Clifford CW. Face detection from patterns of shading and shadows: The role of overhead illumination in generating the familiar appearance of the human face. Cognition 2022; 225:105172. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2022.105172] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/22/2021] [Revised: 05/11/2022] [Accepted: 05/12/2022] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
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20
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Rossion B. Twenty years of investigation with the case of prosopagnosia PS to understand human face identity recognition. Part II: Neural basis. Neuropsychologia 2022; 173:108279. [PMID: 35667496 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2022.108279] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2021] [Revised: 04/30/2022] [Accepted: 05/25/2022] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
Abstract
Patient PS sustained her dramatic brain injury in 1992, the same year as the first report of a neuroimaging study of human face recognition. The present paper complements the review on the functional nature of PS's prosopagnosia (part I), illustrating how her case study directly, i.e., through neuroimaging investigations of her brain structure and activity, but also indirectly, through neural studies performed on other clinical cases and neurotypical individuals, inspired and constrained neural models of human face recognition. In the dominant right hemisphere for face recognition in humans, PS's main lesion concerns (inputs to) the inferior occipital gyrus (IOG), in a region where face-selective activity is typically found in normal individuals ('Occipital Face Area', OFA). Her case study initially supported the criticality of this region for face identity recognition (FIR) and provided the impetus for transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), intracerebral electrical stimulation, and cortical surgery studies that have generally supported this view. Despite PS's right IOG lesion, typical face-selectivity is found anteriorly in the middle portion of the fusiform gyrus, a hominoid structure (termed the right 'Fusiform Face Area', FFA) that is widely considered to be the most important region for human face recognition. This finding led to the original proposal of direct anatomico-functional connections from early visual cortices to the FFA, bypassing the IOG/OFA (lulu), a hypothesis supported by further neuroimaging studies of PS, other neurological cases and neuro-typical individuals with original visual stimulation paradigms, data recordings and analyses. The proposal of a lack of sensitivity to face identity in PS's right FFA due to defective reentrant inputs from the IOG/FFA has also been supported by other cases, functional connectivity and cortical surgery studies. Overall, neural studies of, and based on, the case of prosopagnosia PS strongly question the hierarchical organization of the human neural face recognition system, supporting a more flexible and dynamic view of this key social brain function.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bruno Rossion
- Université de Lorraine, CNRS, CRAN, F-54000, Nancy, France; CHRU-Nancy, Service de Neurologie, F-5400, France; Psychological Sciences Research Institute, Institute of Neuroscience, University of Louvain, Belgium.
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21
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Rossion B. Twenty years of investigation with the case of prosopagnosia PS to understand human face identity recognition. Part I: Function. Neuropsychologia 2022; 173:108278. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2022.108278] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/23/2021] [Revised: 03/28/2022] [Accepted: 05/25/2022] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
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22
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Taubert J, Wardle SG, Tardiff CT, Koele EA, Kumar S, Messinger A, Ungerleider LG. The cortical and subcortical correlates of face pareidolia in the macaque brain. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2022; 17:965-976. [PMID: 35445247 PMCID: PMC9629476 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsac031] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/10/2021] [Revised: 03/27/2022] [Accepted: 04/19/2022] [Indexed: 01/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Face detection is a foundational social skill for primates. This vital function is thought to be supported by specialized neural mechanisms; however, although several face-selective regions have been identified in both humans and nonhuman primates, there is no consensus about which region(s) are involved in face detection. Here, we used naturally occurring errors of face detection (i.e. objects with illusory facial features referred to as examples of 'face pareidolia') to identify regions of the macaque brain implicated in face detection. Using whole-brain functional magnetic resonance imaging to test awake rhesus macaques, we discovered that a subset of face-selective patches in the inferior temporal cortex, on the lower lateral edge of the superior temporal sulcus, and the amygdala respond more to objects with illusory facial features than matched non-face objects. Multivariate analyses of the data revealed differences in the representation of illusory faces across the functionally defined regions of interest. These differences suggest that the cortical and subcortical face-selective regions contribute uniquely to the detection of facial features. We conclude that face detection is supported by a multiplexed system in the primate brain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jessica Taubert
- Correspondence should be addressed to Jessica Taubert, School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Building 24A, St Lucia, QLD 4067, Australia. E-mail:
| | - Susan G Wardle
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, The National Institute of Mental Health, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Clarissa T Tardiff
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, The National Institute of Mental Health, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Elissa A Koele
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, The National Institute of Mental Health, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Susheel Kumar
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, The National Institute of Mental Health, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Adam Messinger
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, The National Institute of Mental Health, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
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23
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Behrmann M, Avidan G. Face perception: computational insights from phylogeny. Trends Cogn Sci 2022; 26:350-363. [PMID: 35232662 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2022.01.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/01/2021] [Revised: 01/21/2022] [Accepted: 01/25/2022] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Abstract
Studies of face perception in primates elucidate the psychological and neural mechanisms that support this critical and complex ability. Recent progress in characterizing face perception across species, for example in insects and reptiles, has highlighted the ubiquity over phylogeny of this key ability for social interactions and survival. Here, we review the competence in face perception across species and the types of computation that support this behavior. We conclude that the computational complexity of face perception evinced by a species is not related to phylogenetic status and is, instead, largely a product of environmental context and social and adaptive pressures. Integrating findings across evolutionary data permits the derivation of computational principles that shed further light on primate face perception.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marlene Behrmann
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
| | - Galia Avidan
- Department of Psychology, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel
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24
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Gao X, Wen M, Sun M, Rossion B. A Genuine Interindividual Variability in Number and Anatomical Localization of Face-Selective Regions in the Human Brain. Cereb Cortex 2022; 32:4834-4856. [PMID: 35088077 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhab519] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/04/2021] [Revised: 12/15/2021] [Accepted: 12/16/2021] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Neuroimaging studies have reported regions with more neural activation to face than nonface stimuli in the human occipitotemporal cortex for three decades. Here we used a highly sensitive and reliable frequency-tagging functional magnetic resonance imaging paradigm measuring high-level face-selective neural activity to assess interindividual variability in the localization and number of face-selective clusters. Although the majority of these clusters are located in the same cortical gyri and sulci across 25 adult brains, a volume-based analysis of unsmoothed data reveals a large amount of interindividual variability in their spatial distribution and number, particularly in the ventral occipitotemporal cortex. In contrast to the widely held assumption, these face-selective clusters cannot be objectively related on a one-to-one basis across individual brains, do not correspond to a single cytoarchitectonic region, and are not clearly demarcated by estimated posteroanterior cytoarchitectonic borders. Interindividual variability in localization and number of cortical face-selective clusters does not appear to be due to the measurement noise but seems to be genuine, casting doubt on definite labeling and interindividual correspondence of face-selective "areas" and questioning their a priori definition based on cytoarchitectony or probabilistic atlases of independent datasets. These observations challenge conventional models of human face recognition based on a fixed number of discrete neurofunctional information processing stages.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaoqing Gao
- Center for Psychological Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310028, China
| | - Minjie Wen
- Department of Psychology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310028, China
| | - Mengdan Sun
- Center for Psychological Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310028, China
| | - Bruno Rossion
- Université de Lorraine, CNRS, CRAN, F-54000, Nancy, France
- Université de Lorraine, CHRU-Nancy, Service de Neurologie, F-54000 Nancy, France
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25
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A connectivity-constrained computational account of topographic organization in primate high-level visual cortex. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2022; 119:2112566119. [PMID: 35027449 PMCID: PMC8784138 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2112566119] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 11/30/2021] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Inferotemporal (IT) cortex in humans and other primates is topographically organized, containing multiple hierarchically organized areas selective for particular domains, such as faces and scenes. This organization is commonly viewed in terms of evolved domain-specific visual mechanisms. Here, we develop an alternative, domain-general and developmental account of IT cortical organization. The account is instantiated in interactive topographic networks (ITNs), a class of computational models in which a hierarchy of model IT areas, subject to biologically plausible connectivity-based constraints, learns high-level visual representations optimized for multiple domains. We find that minimizing a wiring cost on spatially organized feedforward and lateral connections, alongside realistic constraints on the sign of neuronal connectivity within model IT, results in a hierarchical, topographic organization. This organization replicates a number of key properties of primate IT cortex, including the presence of domain-selective spatial clusters preferentially involved in the representation of faces, objects, and scenes; columnar responses across separate excitatory and inhibitory units; and generic spatial organization whereby the response correlation of pairs of units falls off with their distance. We thus argue that topographic domain selectivity is an emergent property of a visual system optimized to maximize behavioral performance under generic connectivity-based constraints.
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26
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Genomic resources for rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). Mamm Genome 2022; 33:91-99. [PMID: 34999909 PMCID: PMC8742695 DOI: 10.1007/s00335-021-09922-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/09/2021] [Accepted: 09/22/2021] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Abstract
Rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) are among the most extensively studied of nonhuman primates. This species has been the subject of many investigations concerning basic primate biology and behavior, including studies of social organization, developmental psychology, physiology, endocrinology, and neurodevelopment. Rhesus macaques are also critically important as a nonhuman primate model of human health and disease, including use in studies of infectious diseases, metabolic diseases, aging, and drug or alcohol abuse. Current research addressing fundamental biological and/or applied biomedical questions benefits from various genetic and genomic analyses. As a result, the genome of rhesus macaques has been the subject of more study than most nonhuman primates. This paper briefly discusses a number of information resources that can provide interested researchers with access to genetic and genomic data describing the content of the rhesus macaque genome, available information regarding genetic variation within the species, results from studies of gene expression, and other aspects of genomic analysis. Specific online databases are discussed, including the US National Center for Biotechnology Information, the University of California Santa Cruz genome browser, Ensembl genome browser, the Macaque Genotype and Phenotype database (mGAP), Rhesusbase, and others.
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27
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Mulholland MM, Neal Webb SJ, Mareno MC, Schweller KG, Schapiro SJ, Hopkins WD. Are conspecific social videos rewarding to chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)? A test of the social motivation theory. PLoS One 2021; 16:e0259941. [PMID: 34818358 PMCID: PMC8612576 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0259941] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/16/2020] [Accepted: 10/31/2021] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Many claim that social stimuli are rewarding to primates, but few, if any, studies have explicitly demonstrated their reward value. Here, we examined whether chimpanzees would produce overt responses for the opportunity to view conspecific social, compared to dynamic (video: Experiment 1) and static (picture: Experiment 2) control content. We also explored the relationships between variation in social reward and social behavior and cognition. We provided captive chimpanzees with access to a touchscreen during four, one-hour sessions (two 'conspecific social' and two 'control'). The sessions consisted of ten, 15-second videos (or pictures in Experiment 2) of either chimpanzees engaging in a variety of behaviors (social condition) or vehicles, humans, or other animals engaged in some activity (control condition). For each chimpanzee, we recorded the number of responses to the touchscreen and the frequency of watching the stimuli. Independent t-tests revealed no sex or rearing differences in touching and watching the social or control videos (p>0.05). Repeated measures ANOVAs showed chimpanzees touched and watched the screen significantly more often during the social compared to control video sessions. Furthermore, although chimpanzees did not touch the screen more often during social than control picture sessions in Experiment 2, they did watch the screen more often. Additionally, chimpanzees that previously performed better on a task of social cognition and engaged in more affiliative behavior watched a higher percentage of social videos during the touchscreen task. These results are consistent with the social motivation theory, and indicate social stimuli are intrinsically rewarding, as chimpanzees made more overt responses for the opportunity to view conspecific social, compared to control, content.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michele M. Mulholland
- Department of Comparative Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Bastrop, TX, United States of America
- * E-mail:
| | - Sarah J. Neal Webb
- Department of Comparative Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Bastrop, TX, United States of America
| | - Mary Catherine Mareno
- Department of Comparative Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Bastrop, TX, United States of America
| | | | - Steven J. Schapiro
- Department of Comparative Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Bastrop, TX, United States of America
- Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Copenhagen, Storm Lake, IA, United States of America
| | - William D. Hopkins
- Department of Comparative Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Bastrop, TX, United States of America
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Decramer T, Premereur E, Zhu Q, Van Paesschen W, van Loon J, Vanduffel W, Taubert J, Janssen P, Theys T. Single-Unit Recordings Reveal the Selectivity of a Human Face Area. J Neurosci 2021; 41:9340-9349. [PMID: 34732521 PMCID: PMC8580152 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.0349-21.2021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/14/2021] [Revised: 08/24/2021] [Accepted: 08/26/2021] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
The exquisite capacity of primates to detect and recognize faces is crucial for social interactions. Although disentangling the neural basis of human face recognition remains a key goal in neuroscience, direct evidence at the single-neuron level is limited. We recorded from face-selective neurons in human visual cortex in a region characterized by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) activations for faces compared with objects. The majority of visually responsive neurons in this fMRI activation showed strong selectivity at short latencies for faces compared with objects. Feature-scrambled faces and face-like objects could also drive these neurons, suggesting that this region is not tightly tuned to the visual attributes that typically define whole human faces. These single-cell recordings within the human face processing system provide vital experimental evidence linking previous imaging studies in humans and invasive studies in animal models.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT We present the first recordings of face-selective neurons in or near an fMRI-defined patch in human visual cortex. Our unbiased multielectrode array recordings (i.e., no selection of neurons based on a search strategy) confirmed the validity of the BOLD contrast (faces-objects) in humans, a finding with implications for all human imaging studies. By presenting faces, feature-scrambled faces, and face-pareidolia (perceiving faces in inanimate objects) stimuli, we demonstrate that neurons at this level of the visual hierarchy are broadly tuned to the features of a face, independent of spatial configuration and low-level visual attributes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas Decramer
- Research Group Experimental Neurosurgery and Neuroanatomy, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven Brain Institute, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
- Departments of Neurosurgery and
- Laboratory for Neuro- and Psychophysiology, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven Brain Institute, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
| | - Elsie Premereur
- Laboratory for Neuro- and Psychophysiology, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven Brain Institute, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
| | - Qi Zhu
- Laboratory for Neuro- and Psychophysiology, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven Brain Institute, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
| | - Wim Van Paesschen
- Neurology, University Hospitals Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
- Laboratory for Epilepsy Research, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
| | - Johannes van Loon
- Research Group Experimental Neurosurgery and Neuroanatomy, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven Brain Institute, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
- Departments of Neurosurgery and
| | - Wim Vanduffel
- Laboratory for Neuro- and Psychophysiology, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven Brain Institute, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
| | - Jessica Taubert
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892
| | - Peter Janssen
- Laboratory for Neuro- and Psychophysiology, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven Brain Institute, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
| | - Tom Theys
- Research Group Experimental Neurosurgery and Neuroanatomy, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven Brain Institute, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
- Departments of Neurosurgery and
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Is human face recognition lateralized to the right hemisphere due to neural competition with left-lateralized visual word recognition? A critical review. Brain Struct Funct 2021; 227:599-629. [PMID: 34731327 DOI: 10.1007/s00429-021-02370-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/16/2021] [Accepted: 08/23/2021] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
The right hemispheric lateralization of face recognition, which is well documented and appears to be specific to the human species, remains a scientific mystery. According to a long-standing view, the evolution of language, which is typically substantiated in the left hemisphere, competes with the cortical space in that hemisphere available for visuospatial processes, including face recognition. Over the last decade, a specific hypothesis derived from this view according to which neural competition in the left ventral occipito-temporal cortex with selective representations of letter strings causes right hemispheric lateralization of face recognition, has generated considerable interest and research in the scientific community. Here, a systematic review of studies performed in various populations (infants, children, literate and illiterate adults, left-handed adults) and methodologies (behavior, lesion studies, (intra)electroencephalography, neuroimaging) offers little if any support for this reading lateralized neural competition hypothesis. Specifically, right-lateralized face-selective neural activity already emerges at a few months of age, well before reading acquisition. Moreover, consistent evidence of face recognition performance and its right hemispheric lateralization being modulated by literacy level during development or at adulthood is lacking. Given the absence of solid alternative hypotheses and the key role of neural competition in the sensory-motor cortices for selectivity of representations, learning, and plasticity, a revised language-related neural competition hypothesis for the right hemispheric lateralization of face recognition should be further explored in future research, albeit with substantial conceptual clarification and advances in methodological rigor.
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30
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Does automatic human face categorization depend on head orientation? Cortex 2021; 141:94-111. [PMID: 34049256 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2021.03.030] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/25/2020] [Revised: 11/11/2020] [Accepted: 03/19/2021] [Indexed: 01/23/2023]
Abstract
Whether human categorization of visual stimuli as faces is optimal for full-front views, best revealing diagnostic features but lacking depth cues, remains largely unknown. To address this question, we presented 16 human observers with unsegmented natural images of different living and non-living objects at a fast rate (f = 12 Hz), with natural face images appearing at f/9 = 1.33 Hz. Faces posing all full-front or at ¾ side view angles appeared in separate sequences. Robust frequency-tagged 1.33 Hz (and harmonic) occipito-temporal electroencephalographic (EEG) responses reflecting face-selective neural activity did not differ in overall amplitude between full-front and ¾ side views. Despite this, alternating between full-front and ¾ side views within a sequence led to significant responses at specific harmonics of .67 Hz (f/18), objectively isolating view-dependent face-selective responses over occipito-temporal regions. Critically, a time-domain analysis showed that these view-dependent face-selective responses reflected only an earlier response to full-front than ¾ side views by 8-13 ms. Overall, these findings indicate that the face-selective neural representation is as robust for ¾ side faces as for full-front faces in the human brain, but full-front views provide a slightly earlier processing-time advantage as compared to rotated face views.
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31
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Jonas J, Rossion B. Intracerebral electrical stimulation to understand the neural basis of human face identity recognition. Eur J Neurosci 2021; 54:4197-4211. [PMID: 33866613 DOI: 10.1111/ejn.15235] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/02/2020] [Revised: 03/08/2021] [Accepted: 03/31/2021] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
Recognizing people's identity by their faces is a key function in the human species, supported by regions of the ventral occipito-temporal cortex (VOTC). In the last decade, there have been several reports of perceptual face distortion during direct electrical stimulation (DES) with subdural electrodes positioned over a well-known face-selective VOTC region of the right lateral middle fusiform gyrus (LatMidFG; i.e., the "Fusiform Face Area", FFA). However, transient impairments of face identity recognition (FIR) have been extremely rare and only behaviorally quantified during DES with intracerebral (i.e., depth) electrodes in stereo-electroencephalography (SEEG). The three detailed cases reported so far, summarized here, were specifically impaired at FIR during DES inside different anatomical VOTC regions of the right hemisphere: the inferior occipital gyrus (IOG) and the LatMidFG, as well as a region that lies at the heart of a large magnetic susceptibility artifact in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI): the anterior fusiform gyrus (AntFG). In the first two regions, the eloquent electrode contacts were systematically associated with the highest face-selective and (unfamiliar) face individuation responses as measured with intracerebral electrophysiology. Stimulation in the right AntFG did not lead to perceptual changes but also caused an inability to remember having been presented face pictures, as if the episode was never recorded in memory. These observations support the view of an extensive network of face-selective VOTC regions subtending human FIR, with at least three critical nodes in the right hemisphere associated with differential intrinsic and extrinsic patterns of reentrant connectivity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jacques Jonas
- Université de Lorraine, CNRS, CRAN, Nancy, France
- Université de Lorraine, CHRU-Nancy, Service de Neurologie, Nancy, France
| | - Bruno Rossion
- Université de Lorraine, CNRS, CRAN, Nancy, France
- Université de Lorraine, CHRU-Nancy, Service de Neurologie, Nancy, France
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32
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Orczyk J, Schroeder CE, Abeles IY, Gomez-Ramirez M, Butler PD, Kajikawa Y. Comparison of Scalp ERP to Faces in Macaques and Humans. Front Syst Neurosci 2021; 15:667611. [PMID: 33967709 PMCID: PMC8101630 DOI: 10.3389/fnsys.2021.667611] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/14/2021] [Accepted: 03/30/2021] [Indexed: 02/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Face recognition is an essential activity of social living, common to many primate species. Underlying processes in the brain have been investigated using various techniques and compared between species. Functional imaging studies have shown face-selective cortical regions and their degree of correspondence across species. However, the temporal dynamics of face processing, particularly processing speed, are likely different between them. Across sensory modalities activation of primary sensory cortices in macaque monkeys occurs at about 3/5 the latency of corresponding activation in humans, though this human simian difference may diminish or disappear in higher cortical regions. We recorded scalp event-related potentials (ERPs) to presentation of faces in macaques and estimated the peak latency of ERP components. Comparisons of latencies between macaques (112 ms) and humans (192 ms) suggested that the 3:5 ratio could be preserved in higher cognitive regions of face processing between those species.
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Affiliation(s)
- John Orczyk
- Translational Neuroscience Division, Center for Biological Imaging and Neuromodulation, Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, NY, United States
| | - Charles E Schroeder
- Translational Neuroscience Division, Center for Biological Imaging and Neuromodulation, Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, NY, United States.,Department of Neurological Surgery, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, United States
| | - Ilana Y Abeles
- Clinical Research Department, Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, NY, United States
| | - Manuel Gomez-Ramirez
- Clinical Research Department, Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, NY, United States
| | - Pamela D Butler
- Clinical Research Department, Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, NY, United States.,Psychiatry Department, School of Medicine, New York University, New York, NY, United States
| | - Yoshinao Kajikawa
- Translational Neuroscience Division, Center for Biological Imaging and Neuromodulation, Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, NY, United States.,Psychiatry Department, School of Medicine, New York University, New York, NY, United States
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Rossion B. What are superior face identity recognizers (SFIR) made of? Neuropsychologia 2021; 158:107807. [PMID: 33636153 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2021.107807] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/13/2021] [Accepted: 02/19/2021] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
Abstract
In her Viewpoint paper, Meike Ramon proposes a stringent operational definition to identify people who excel at face identity recognition, i.e., super face identity recognizers (SFIR). Based on difficulties at defining cases of prosopagnosia and prosopdysgnosia, I suggest adding exclusion criteria and emphasizing domain-specificity of SFIR's performance. In future work to characterize this special population, implicit electrophysiological measures obtained during fast periodic visual stimulation may be particularly valuable, providing valid, objective, sensitive, and reliable indexes of face identity recognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bruno Rossion
- Université de Lorraine, CNRS, CRAN, F-54000, Nancy, France; CHRU-Nancy, Service de Neurologie, F-54000, France.
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34
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Koyano KW, Jones AP, McMahon DBT, Waidmann EN, Russ BE, Leopold DA. Dynamic Suppression of Average Facial Structure Shapes Neural Tuning in Three Macaque Face Patches. Curr Biol 2021; 31:1-12.e5. [PMID: 33065012 PMCID: PMC7855058 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.09.070] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/15/2020] [Revised: 08/14/2020] [Accepted: 09/22/2020] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
The visual perception of identity in humans and other primates is thought to draw upon cortical areas specialized for the analysis of facial structure. A prominent theory of face recognition holds that the brain computes and stores average facial structure, which it then uses to efficiently determine individual identity, though the neural mechanisms underlying this process are controversial. Here, we demonstrate that the dynamic suppression of average facial structure plays a prominent role in the responses of neurons in three fMRI-defined face patches of the macaque. Using photorealistic face stimuli that systematically varied in identity level according to a psychophysically based face space, we found that single units in the AF, AM, and ML face patches exhibited robust tuning around average facial structure. This tuning emerged after the initial excitatory response to the face and was expressed as the selective suppression of sustained responses to low-identity faces. The coincidence of this suppression with increased spike timing synchrony across the population suggests a mechanism of active inhibition underlying this effect. Control experiments confirmed that the diminished responses to low-identity faces were not due to short-term adaptation processes. We propose that the brain's neural suppression of average facial structure facilitates recognition by promoting the extraction of distinctive facial characteristics and suppressing redundant or irrelevant responses across the population.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kenji W Koyano
- Section on Cognitive Neurophysiology and Imaging, National Institute of Mental Health, 49 Convent Dr., Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
| | - Adam P Jones
- Section on Cognitive Neurophysiology and Imaging, National Institute of Mental Health, 49 Convent Dr., Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - David B T McMahon
- Section on Cognitive Neurophysiology and Imaging, National Institute of Mental Health, 49 Convent Dr., Bethesda, MD 20892, USA; Neuronal Networks Section, National Eye Institute, 49 Convent Dr., Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Elena N Waidmann
- Section on Cognitive Neurophysiology and Imaging, National Institute of Mental Health, 49 Convent Dr., Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Brian E Russ
- Section on Cognitive Neurophysiology and Imaging, National Institute of Mental Health, 49 Convent Dr., Bethesda, MD 20892, USA; Center for Biomedical Imaging and Neuromodulation, Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, 140 Old Orangeburg Road, Orangeburg, NY 10962, USA
| | - David A Leopold
- Section on Cognitive Neurophysiology and Imaging, National Institute of Mental Health, 49 Convent Dr., Bethesda, MD 20892, USA; Neurophysiology Imaging Facility, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Eye Institute, 49 Convent Dr., Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
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35
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Hesse JK, Tsao DY. The macaque face patch system: a turtle’s underbelly for the brain. Nat Rev Neurosci 2020; 21:695-716. [DOI: 10.1038/s41583-020-00393-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 38] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 09/30/2020] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
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36
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Jacques C, Rossion B, Volfart A, Brissart H, Colnat-Coulbois S, Maillard L, Jonas J. The neural basis of rapid unfamiliar face individuation with human intracerebral recordings. Neuroimage 2020; 221:117174. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.117174] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/25/2020] [Revised: 05/19/2020] [Accepted: 07/14/2020] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
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37
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Rossion B, Retter TL, Liu‐Shuang J. Understanding human individuation of unfamiliar faces with oddball fast periodic visual stimulation and electroencephalography. Eur J Neurosci 2020; 52:4283-4344. [DOI: 10.1111/ejn.14865] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/04/2020] [Revised: 05/19/2020] [Accepted: 05/30/2020] [Indexed: 01/08/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Bruno Rossion
- CNRS, CRAN UMR7039 Université de Lorraine F‐54000Nancy France
- Service de Neurologie, CHRU‐Nancy Université de Lorraine F‐54000Nancy France
| | - Talia L. Retter
- Department of Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences Faculty of Language and Literature Humanities, Arts and Education University of Luxembourg Luxembourg Luxembourg
| | - Joan Liu‐Shuang
- Institute of Research in Psychological Science Institute of Neuroscience Université de Louvain Louvain‐la‐Neuve Belgium
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38
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Typical visual unfamiliar face individuation in left and right mesial temporal epilepsy. Neuropsychologia 2020; 147:107583. [PMID: 32771474 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2020.107583] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/23/2020] [Revised: 07/07/2020] [Accepted: 08/05/2020] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
Patients with chronic mesial temporal lobe epilepsy have difficulties at identifying familiar faces as well as at explicit old/new face recognition tasks. However, the extent to which these difficulties can be attributed to visual individuation of faces, independently of general explicit learning and semantic memory processes, is unknown. We tested 42 mesial temporal lobe epilepsy patients divided into two groups according to the side of epilepsy (left and right) and 42 matched controls on an extensive series of individuation tasks of unfamiliar faces and control visual stimuli, as well as on face detection, famous face recognition and naming, and face and non-face learning. Overall, both patient groups had difficulties at identifying and naming famous faces, and at explicitly learning face and non-face images. However, there was no group difference in accuracy between patients and controls at the two most widely used neuropsychological tests assessing visual individuation of unfamiliar faces (Benton Facial Recognition Test and Cambridge Face Memory Test). While patients with right mesial temporal lobe epilepsy were slowed down at all tasks, this effect was not specific to faces or even high-level stimuli. Importantly, both groups showed the same profile of response as typical participants across various stimulus manipulations, showing no evidence of qualitative processing impairments. Overall, these results point to largely preserved visual face individuation processes in patients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy, with semantic and episodic memory difficulties being consistent with the localization of the neural structures involved in their epilepsy (anterior temporal cortex and hippocampus). These observations have implications for the prediction of neuropsychological outcomes in the case of surgery and support the validity of intracranial electroencephalographic recordings performed in this population to understand neural mechanisms of human face individuation, notably through intracranial electrophysiological recordings and stimulations.
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The role of early social rearing, neurological, and genetic factors on individual differences in mutual eye gaze among captive chimpanzees. Sci Rep 2020; 10:7412. [PMID: 32366881 PMCID: PMC7198555 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-64051-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/11/2019] [Accepted: 04/09/2020] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Mutual eye gaze plays an important role in primate social development and communication. In the current study, we examined the underlying experiential, genetic, and neuroanatomical basis of mutual eye gaze variation in adult captive chimpanzees. A multivariate analysis of variance revealed a significant rearing effect on bout length, with human-reared chimpanzees engaging in longer bouts of mutual gaze compared to mother-reared and wild-born individuals. Next, we utilized source-based morphometry (SBM) to examine gray matter covariation in magnetic resonance imaging scans and determine the relationship between the resulting gray matter covariation components and mutual eye gaze. One SBM component was negatively correlated with gaze duration (nucleus accumbens and anterior insular cortex), while two components were positively correlated with bout length (posterior cingulate cortex, inferior occipital cortex, middle temporal cortex, hippocampus, and the precentral sulcus). Finally, heritability analyses revealed mutual eye gaze to be modestly heritable and significant genetic correlations between bout length and two gray matter covariation components. This study reveals that non-genetic factors, and to a lesser extent, genetic factors appear to influence mutual eye gaze in adult chimpanzees, and is the first to report neuroanatomical correlates of mutual eye gaze variation in chimpanzees.
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Lochy A, Schiltz C, Rossion B. The right hemispheric dominance for face perception in preschool children depends on the visual discrimination level. Dev Sci 2020; 23:e12914. [PMID: 31618490 PMCID: PMC7379294 DOI: 10.1111/desc.12914] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2019] [Revised: 05/31/2019] [Accepted: 10/08/2019] [Indexed: 01/08/2023]
Abstract
The developmental origin of human adults' right hemispheric dominance in response to face stimuli remains unclear, in particular because young infants' right hemispheric advantage in face-selective response is no longer present in preschool children, before written language acquisition. Here we used fast periodic visual stimulation (FPVS) with scalp electroencephalography (EEG) to test 52 preschool children (5.5 years old) at two different levels of face discrimination: discrimination of faces against objects, measuring face-selectivity, or discrimination between individual faces. While the contrast between faces and nonface objects elicits strictly bilateral occipital responses in children, strengthening previous observations, discrimination of individual faces in the same children reveals a strong right hemispheric lateralization over the occipitotemporal cortex. Picture-plane inversion of the face stimuli significantly decreases the individual discrimination response, although to a much smaller extent than in older children and adults tested with the same paradigm. However, there is only a nonsignificant trend for a decrease in right hemispheric lateralization with inversion. There is no relationship between the right hemispheric lateralization in individual face discrimination and preschool levels of readings abilities. The observed difference in the right hemispheric lateralization obtained in the same population of children with two different paradigms measuring neural responses to faces indicates that the level of visual discrimination is a key factor to consider when making inferences about the development of hemispheric lateralization of face perception in the human brain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aliette Lochy
- Cognitive Science and Assessment InstituteEducation, Culture, Cognition, and Society Research UnitUniversity of LuxemburgEsch‐sur AlzetteLuxembourg
| | - Christine Schiltz
- Cognitive Science and Assessment InstituteEducation, Culture, Cognition, and Society Research UnitUniversity of LuxemburgEsch‐sur AlzetteLuxembourg
| | - Bruno Rossion
- IPSYUniversité Catholique de LouvainLouvain‐La‐NeuveBelgium
- CNRSCRANUniversité de LorraineNancyFrance
- CHRU‐NancyUniversité de LorraineNancyFrance
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41
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Dzhelyova M, Schiltz C, Rossion B. The Relationship Between the Benton Face Recognition Test and Electrophysiological Unfamiliar Face Individuation Response as Revealed by Fast Periodic Stimulation. Perception 2020; 49:210-221. [DOI: 10.1177/0301006619897495] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Milena Dzhelyova
- Psychological Sciences Research Institute and Institute of Neuroscience, Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium; Cognitive Science and Assessment Institute, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg
| | - Christine Schiltz
- Cognitive Science and Assessment Institute, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg
| | - Bruno Rossion
- CNRS - Université de Lorraine, CRAN, France; Service de Neurologie, CHRU-Nancy, Université de Lorraine, France
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42
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Quantifying the face inversion effect in nonhuman primates: a phylogenetic meta-analysis. Anim Cogn 2019; 23:237-249. [DOI: 10.1007/s10071-019-01340-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/29/2019] [Revised: 12/10/2019] [Accepted: 12/13/2019] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
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43
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Human visual cortex is organized along two genetically opposed hierarchical gradients with unique developmental and evolutionary origins. PLoS Biol 2019; 17:e3000362. [PMID: 31269028 PMCID: PMC6634416 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3000362] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/11/2018] [Revised: 07/16/2019] [Accepted: 06/25/2019] [Indexed: 01/24/2023] Open
Abstract
Human visual cortex is organized with striking consistency across individuals. While recent findings demonstrate an unexpected coupling between functional and cytoarchitectonic regions relative to the folding of human visual cortex, a unifying principle linking these anatomical and functional features of the cortex remains elusive. To fill this gap in knowledge, we combined independent and ground truth measurements of cytoarchitectonic regions and genetic tissue characterization within human occipitotemporal cortex. Using a data-driven approach, we examined whether differential gene expression among cytoarchitectonic areas could contribute to the arealization of occipitotemporal cortex into a hierarchy based on transcriptomics. This approach revealed two opposing gene expression gradients: one that contains a series of genes with expression magnitudes that ascend from posterior (e.g., areas human occipital [hOc]1, hOc2, hOc3, etc.) to anterior cytoarchitectonic areas (e.g., areas fusiform gyrus [FG]1–FG4) and another that contains a separate series of genes that show a descending gradient from posterior to anterior areas. Using data from the living human brain, we show that each of these gradients correlates strongly with variations in measures related to either thickness or myelination of cortex, respectively. We further reveal that these genetic gradients emerge along unique trajectories in human development: the ascending gradient is present at 10–12 gestational weeks, while the descending gradient emerges later (19–24 gestational weeks). Interestingly, it is not until early childhood (before 5 years of age) that the two expression gradients achieve their adult-like mean expression values. Additional analyses in nonhuman primates (NHPs) reveal that homologous genes do not generate the same ascending and descending expression gradients as in humans. We discuss these findings relative to previously proposed hierarchies based on functional and cytoarchitectonic features of visual cortex. Altogether, these findings bridge macroscopic features of human cytoarchitectonic areas in visual cortex with microscopic features of cellular organization and genetic expression, which, despite the complexity of this multiscale correspondence, can be described by a sparse subset (approximately 200) of genes. These findings help pinpoint the genes contributing to healthy cortical development and explicate the cortical biology distinguishing humans from other primates, as well as establishing essential groundwork for understanding future work linking genetic mutations with the function and development of the human brain. The expression of a sparse subset of human genes forms two opposed gradients that capture the processing hierarchy of visual cortex; these transcription gradients emerge at different points during human development and distinguish human from nonhuman primates.
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Oruc I, Balas B, Landy MS. Introduction to the special issue on face perception: Experience, models, and neural mechanisms. Vision Res 2019; 157:10-11. [PMID: 31173774 DOI: 10.1016/j.visres.2019.06.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Ipek Oruc
- Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of British Columbia, Canada; Neuroscience, University of British Columbia, Canada
| | - Benjamin Balas
- Department of Psychology and Center for Visual and Cognitive Neuroscience, North Dakota State University, United States
| | - Michael S Landy
- Department of Psychology and Center for Neural Science, New York University, United States
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Zimmermann FGS, Yan X, Rossion B. An objective, sensitive and ecologically valid neural measure of rapid human individual face recognition. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2019; 6:181904. [PMID: 31312474 PMCID: PMC6599768 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.181904] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/07/2018] [Accepted: 05/10/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
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.
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Affiliation(s)
- Friederike G. S. Zimmermann
- Institute of Research in Psychological Science, Institute of Neuroscience, Université de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
- BG Klinikum Hamburg, Bergedorfer Straße 10, 21033 Hamburg, Germany
| | - Xiaoqian Yan
- Institute of Research in Psychological Science, Institute of Neuroscience, Université de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
| | - Bruno Rossion
- Institute of Research in Psychological Science, Institute of Neuroscience, Université de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
- Université de Lorraine, CNRS, CRAN, 54000 Nancy, France
- CHRU-Nancy, Service de Neurologie, 54000 Nancy, France
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