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Yu G, Katz LN, Quaia C, Messinger A, Krauzlis RJ. Short-latency preference for faces in primate superior colliculus depends on visual cortex. Neuron 2024:S0896-6273(24)00412-4. [PMID: 38959893 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2024.06.005] [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: 01/03/2024] [Revised: 04/20/2024] [Accepted: 06/06/2024] [Indexed: 07/05/2024]
Abstract
Face processing is fundamental to primates and has been extensively studied in higher-order visual cortex. Here, we report that visual neurons in the midbrain superior colliculus (SC) of macaque monkeys display a preference for images of faces. This preference emerges within 40 ms of stimulus onset-well before "face patches" in visual cortex-and, at the population level, can be used to distinguish faces from other visual objects with accuracies of ∼80%. This short-latency face preference in SC depends on signals routed through early visual cortex because inactivating the lateral geniculate nucleus, the key relay from retina to cortex, virtually eliminates visual responses in SC, including face-related activity. These results reveal an unexpected circuit in the primate visual system for rapidly detecting faces in the periphery, complementing the higher-order areas needed for recognizing individual faces.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gongchen Yu
- Laboratory of Sensorimotor Research, National Eye Institute, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
| | - Leor N Katz
- Laboratory of Sensorimotor Research, National Eye Institute, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Christian Quaia
- Laboratory of Sensorimotor Research, National Eye Institute, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Adam Messinger
- Laboratory of Sensorimotor Research, National Eye Institute, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Richard J Krauzlis
- Laboratory of Sensorimotor Research, National Eye Institute, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
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Kunimatsu J, Amita H, Hikosaka O. Neuronal response of the primate striatum tail to face of socially familiar persons. iScience 2024; 27:110043. [PMID: 38868184 PMCID: PMC11167483 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.110043] [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: 01/19/2024] [Revised: 03/21/2024] [Accepted: 05/17/2024] [Indexed: 06/14/2024] Open
Abstract
Recent studies have suggested that the basal ganglia, the center of stimulus-reward associative learning, are involved in social behavior. However, the role of the basal ganglia in social information processing remains unclear. Here, we demonstrate that the striatum tail (STRt) in macaque monkeys, which is sensitive to visual objects with long-term reward history (i.e., stable object value), is also sensitive to socially familiar persons. Many STRt neurons responded to face images of persons, especially those who took daily care of the subject monkeys. These face-responsive neurons also encoded stable object value. The strength of the neuronal modulation of social familiarity and stable object value biases were positively correlated. These results suggest that both social familiarity and stable object value information are mediated by a common neuronal mechanism. Thus, the representation of social information is linked to reward information in the STRt, not in the dedicated social information circuit.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jun Kunimatsu
- Labortory of Sensorimotor Research, National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
- Division of Biomedical Science, Institute of Medicine, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8577, Japan
- Transborder Medical Research Center, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba 305-8577, Japan
| | - Hidetoshi Amita
- Labortory of Sensorimotor Research, National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
- Systems Neuroscience Section, Center for the Evolutionary Origins of Human Behavior, Kyoto University, Inuyama, Aichi 484-8506, Japan
| | - Okihide Hikosaka
- Labortory of Sensorimotor Research, National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
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Taubert J, Wardle SG, Patterson A, Baker CI. Beyond faces: the contribution of the amygdala to visual processing in the macaque brain. Cereb Cortex 2024; 34:bhae245. [PMID: 38864574 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhae245] [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: 02/07/2024] [Revised: 05/03/2024] [Accepted: 05/25/2024] [Indexed: 06/13/2024] Open
Abstract
The amygdala is present in a diverse range of vertebrate species, such as lizards, rodents, and primates; however, its structure and connectivity differs across species. The increased connections to visual sensory areas in primate species suggests that understanding the visual selectivity of the amygdala in detail is critical to revealing the principles underlying its function in primate cognition. Therefore, we designed a high-resolution, contrast-agent enhanced, event-related fMRI experiment, and scanned 3 adult rhesus macaques, while they viewed 96 naturalistic stimuli. Half of these stimuli were social (defined by the presence of a conspecific), the other half were nonsocial. We also nested manipulations of emotional valence (positive, neutral, and negative) and visual category (faces, nonfaces, animate, and inanimate) within the stimulus set. The results reveal widespread effects of emotional valence, with the amygdala responding more on average to inanimate objects and animals than faces, bodies, or social agents in this experimental context. These findings suggest that the amygdala makes a contribution to primate vision that goes beyond an auxiliary role in face or social perception. Furthermore, the results highlight the importance of stimulus selection and experimental design when probing the function of the amygdala and other visually responsive brain regions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jessica Taubert
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, 10 Center Dr, Bethesda, MD 20892 USA
- School of Psychology, Level 3, McElwain Building (24A), The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia
| | - Susan G Wardle
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, 10 Center Dr, Bethesda, MD 20892 USA
| | - Amanda Patterson
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, 10 Center Dr, Bethesda, MD 20892 USA
| | - Chris I Baker
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, 10 Center Dr, Bethesda, MD 20892 USA
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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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Matsushima T, Izumi T, Vallortigara G. The domestic chick as an animal model of autism spectrum disorder: building adaptive social perceptions through prenatally formed predispositions. Front Neurosci 2024; 18:1279947. [PMID: 38356650 PMCID: PMC10864568 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2024.1279947] [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: 08/19/2023] [Accepted: 01/10/2024] [Indexed: 02/16/2024] Open
Abstract
Equipped with an early social predisposition immediately post-birth, humans typically form associations with mothers and other family members through exposure learning, canalized by a prenatally formed predisposition of visual preference to biological motion, face configuration, and other cues of animacy. If impaired, reduced preferences can lead to social interaction impairments such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) via misguided canalization. Despite being taxonomically distant, domestic chicks could also follow a homologous developmental trajectory toward adaptive socialization through imprinting, which is guided via predisposed preferences similar to those of humans, thereby suggesting that chicks are a valid animal model of ASD. In addition to the phenotypic similarities in predisposition with human newborns, accumulating evidence on the responsible molecular mechanisms suggests the construct validity of the chick model. Considering the recent progress in the evo-devo studies in vertebrates, we reviewed the advantages and limitations of the chick model of developmental mental diseases in humans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Toshiya Matsushima
- Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan
- Faculty of Pharmaceutical Science, Health Science University of Hokkaido, Tobetsu, Japan
- Centre for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento, Rovereto, Italy
| | - Takeshi Izumi
- Faculty of Pharmaceutical Science, Health Science University of Hokkaido, Tobetsu, Japan
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Yu G, Katz LN, Quaia C, Messinger A, Krauzlis RJ. Short-latency preference for faces in the primate superior colliculus. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.09.06.556401. [PMID: 37886488 PMCID: PMC10602035 DOI: 10.1101/2023.09.06.556401] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/28/2023]
Abstract
Face processing is fundamental to primates and has been extensively studied in higher-order visual cortex. Here we report that visual neurons in the midbrain superior colliculus (SC) display a preference for faces, that the preference emerges within 50ms of stimulus onset - well before "face patches" in visual cortex - and that this activity can distinguish faces from other visual objects with accuracies of ~80%. This short-latency preference in SC depends on signals routed through early visual cortex, because inactivating the lateral geniculate nucleus, the key relay from retina to cortex, virtually eliminates visual responses in SC, including face-related activity. These results reveal an unexpected circuit in the primate visual system for rapidly detecting faces in the periphery, complementing the higher-order areas needed for recognizing individual faces.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gongchen Yu
- Laboratory of Sensorimotor Research, National Eye Institute; Bethesda, Maryland, 20892, USA
| | - Leor N. Katz
- Laboratory of Sensorimotor Research, National Eye Institute; Bethesda, Maryland, 20892, USA
| | - Christian Quaia
- Laboratory of Sensorimotor Research, National Eye Institute; Bethesda, Maryland, 20892, USA
| | - Adam Messinger
- Laboratory of Sensorimotor Research, National Eye Institute; Bethesda, Maryland, 20892, USA
| | - Richard J. Krauzlis
- Laboratory of Sensorimotor Research, National Eye Institute; Bethesda, Maryland, 20892, USA
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Lim C, Inagaki M, Shinozaki T, Fujita I. Analysis of convolutional neural networks reveals the computational properties essential for subcortical processing of facial expression. Sci Rep 2023; 13:10908. [PMID: 37407668 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-37995-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/09/2023] [Accepted: 06/30/2023] [Indexed: 07/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Perception of facial expression is crucial for primate social interactions. This visual information is processed through the ventral cortical pathway and the subcortical pathway. However, the subcortical pathway exhibits inaccurate processing, and the responsible architectural and physiological properties remain unclear. To investigate this, we constructed and examined convolutional neural networks with three key properties of the subcortical pathway: a shallow layer architecture, concentric receptive fields at the initial processing stage, and a greater degree of spatial pooling. These neural networks achieved modest accuracy in classifying facial expressions. By replacing these properties, individually or in combination, with corresponding cortical features, performance gradually improved. Similar to amygdala neurons, some units in the final processing layer exhibited sensitivity to retina-based spatial frequencies (SFs), while others were sensitive to object-based SFs. Replacement of any of these properties affected the coordinates of the SF encoding. Therefore, all three properties limit the accuracy of facial expression information and are essential for determining the SF representation coordinate. These findings characterize the role of the subcortical computational processes in facial expression recognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chanseok Lim
- Laboratory for Cognitive Neuroscience, Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences, Osaka University, 1-4 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka, 565-0871, Japan
- Perceptual and Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences, Osaka University, 1-4 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka, 565-0871, Japan
| | - Mikio Inagaki
- Laboratory for Cognitive Neuroscience, Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences, Osaka University, 1-4 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka, 565-0871, Japan
- Center for Information and Neural Networks, National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, 1-4 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka, 565-0871, Japan
| | - Takashi Shinozaki
- Center for Information and Neural Networks, National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, 1-4 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka, 565-0871, Japan
- Computational Neuroscience Laboratory, Faculty of Informatics, Kindai University, 3-4-1 Kowakae, Higashiosaka, Osaka, 577-8502, Japan
| | - Ichiro Fujita
- Laboratory for Cognitive Neuroscience, Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences, Osaka University, 1-4 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka, 565-0871, Japan.
- Center for Information and Neural Networks, National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, 1-4 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka, 565-0871, Japan.
- Research Organization of Science and Technology, Ritsumeikan University, 1-1-1 Noji-Higashi, Kusatsu, Shiga, 525-8577, Japan.
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Inagaki M, Ito T, Shinozaki T, Fujita I. Convolutional neural networks reveal differences in action units of facial expressions between face image databases developed in different countries. Front Psychol 2022; 13:988302. [DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.988302] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/08/2022] [Accepted: 10/04/2022] [Indexed: 11/06/2022] Open
Abstract
Cultural similarities and differences in facial expressions have been a controversial issue in the field of facial communications. A key step in addressing the debate regarding the cultural dependency of emotional expression (and perception) is to characterize the visual features of specific facial expressions in individual cultures. Here we developed an image analysis framework for this purpose using convolutional neural networks (CNNs) that through training learned visual features critical for classification. We analyzed photographs of facial expressions derived from two databases, each developed in a different country (Sweden and Japan), in which corresponding emotion labels were available. While the CNNs reached high rates of correct results that were far above chance after training with each database, they showed many misclassifications when they analyzed faces from the database that was not used for training. These results suggest that facial features useful for classifying facial expressions differed between the databases. The selectivity of computational units in the CNNs to action units (AUs) of the face varied across the facial expressions. Importantly, the AU selectivity often differed drastically between the CNNs trained with the different databases. Similarity and dissimilarity of these tuning profiles partly explained the pattern of misclassifications, suggesting that the AUs are important for characterizing the facial features and differ between the two countries. The AU tuning profiles, especially those reduced by principal component analysis, are compact summaries useful for comparisons across different databases, and thus might advance our understanding of universality vs. specificity of facial expressions across cultures.
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