The hierarchical brain network for face recognition

Specialization of amygdala subregions in emotion processing

The amygdala is important for human fear processing. However, recent research has failed to reveal specificity, with evidence that the amygdala also responds to other emotions. A more nuanced understanding of the amygdala's role in emotion processing, particularly relating to fear, is needed given the importance of effective emotional functioning for everyday function and mental health. We studied 86 healthy participants (44 females), aged 18-49 (mean 26.12 ± 6.6) years, who underwent multiband functional magnetic resonance imaging. We specifically examined the reactivity of four amygdala subregions (using regions of interest analysis) and related brain connectivity networks (using generalized psycho-physiological interaction) to fear, angry, and happy facial stimuli using an emotional face-matching task. All amygdala subregions responded to all stimuli (p-FDR < .05), with this reactivity strongly driven by the superficial and centromedial amygdala (p-FDR < .001). Yet amygdala subregions selectively showed strong functional connectivity with other occipitotemporal and inferior frontal brain regions with particular sensitivity to fear recognition and strongly driven by the basolateral amygdala (p-FDR < .05). These findings suggest that amygdala specialization to fear may not be reflected in its local activity but in its connectivity with other brain regions within a specific face-processing network.

A hierarchy of visual processing deficits in body dysmorphic disorder: a conceptual review and empirical investigation

OBJECTIVE

Abnormal visual processing has been proposed as a mechanism underlying excessive focus on minor appearance flaws in body dysmorphic disorder (BDD). Existing BDD research has not differentiated the various stages of face processing (featural, first-order configural, holistic and second-order configural) that are required for higher-order processes such as emotion recognition. This study investigated a hierarchical visual processing model to examine the nature of abnormalities in face processing in BDD.

METHOD

Thirty BDD participants and 27 healthy controls completed the Navon task, a featural and configural face processing task and a facial emotion labelling task.

RESULTS

BDD participants performed similarly to controls when processing global and local non-face stimuli on the Navon task, when detecting subtle changes in the features and spacing of a target face, and when labelling emotional faces. However, BDD participants displayed poorer performance when viewing inverted faces, indicating difficulties in configural processing.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings only partially support prior work. However, synthesis of results with previous findings indicates that heterogenous task methodologies may contribute to inconsistent findings. Recommendations are provided regarding the task parameters that appear most sensitive to abnormalities in BDD.

The conscious processing of emotion in depression disorder: a meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies

Background

Depression is generally accompanied by a disturbed conscious processing of emotion, which manifests as a negative bias to facial/voice emotion information and a decreased accuracy in emotion recognition tasks. Several studies have proved that abnormal brain activation was responsible for the deficit function of conscious emotion recognition in depression. However, the altered brain activation related to the conscious processing of emotion in depression was incongruent among studies. Therefore, we conducted an activation likelihood estimation (ALE) analysis to better understand the underlying neurophysiological mechanism of conscious processing of emotion in depression.

Method

Electronic databases were searched using the search terms "depression," "emotion recognition," and "neuroimaging" from inceptions to April 10th, 2023. We retrieved trials which explored the neuro-responses of depressive patients to explicit emotion recognition tasks. Two investigators independently performed literature selection, data extraction, and risk of bias assessment. The spatial consistency of brain activation in conscious facial expressions recognition was calculated using ALE. The robustness of the results was examined by Jackknife sensitivity analysis.

Results

We retrieved 11,365 articles in total, 28 of which were included. In the overall analysis, we found increased activity in the middle temporal gyrus, superior temporal gyrus, parahippocampal gyrus, and cuneus, and decreased activity in the superior temporal gyrus, inferior parietal lobule, insula, and superior frontal gyrus. In response to positive stimuli, depressive patients showed hyperactivity in the medial frontal gyrus, middle temporal gyrus, and insula (uncorrected p < 0.001). When receiving negative stimuli, a higher activation was found in the precentral gyrus, middle frontal gyrus, precuneus, and superior temporal gyrus (uncorrected p < 0.001).

Conclusion

Among depressive patients, a broad spectrum of brain areas was involved in a deficit of conscious emotion processing. The activation of brain regions was different in response to positive or negative stimuli. Due to potential clinical heterogeneity, the findings should be treated with caution.

Systematic review registration

https://inplasy.com/inplasy-2022-11-0057/, identifier: 2022110057.

Affective evaluation of consciously perceived emotional faces reveals a "correct attribution effect"

The strength of the affective priming effect is influenced by various factors, including the duration of the prime. Surprisingly, short-duration primes that are around the threshold for conscious awareness typically result in stronger effects compared to long-duration primes. The misattribution effect theory suggest that subliminal primes do not provide sufficient cognitive processing time for the affective feeling to be attributed to the prime. Instead, the neutral target being evaluated is credited for the affective experience. In everyday social interactions, we shift our gaze from one face to another, typically contemplating each face for only a few seconds. It is reasonable to assume that no affective priming takes place during such interactions. To investigate whether this is indeed the case, participants were asked to rate the valence of faces displayed one by one. Each face image simultaneously served as both a target (primed by the previous trial) and a prime (for the next trial). Depending on the participant's response time, images were typically displayed for about 1-2 s. As predicted by the misattribution effect theory, neutral targets were not affected by positive affective priming. However, non-neutral targets showed a robust priming effect, with emotional faces being perceived as even more negative or positive when the previously seen face was emotionally congruent. These results suggest that a "correct attribution effect" modulates how we perceive faces, continuously impacting our social interactions. Given the importance of faces in social communication, these findings have wide-ranging implications.

Hormonal contraception & face processing: Examining face gender, androgenicity & treatment duration

Previous cross-sectional studies observed differences between users and non-users of combined oral contraceptives (COCs) in both the structure and function of the fusiform face area (FFA) related to face processing. For the present study 120 female participants performed high-resolution structural, as well as functional scans at rest, during face encoding and face recognition. Participants were either never-users of COCs (26), current first-time users of androgenic (29) or anti-androgenic COCs (23) or previous users of androgenic (21) or anti-androgenic COCs (21). Results suggest that associations between COC-use and face processing are modulated by androgenicity, but do not persist beyond the duration of COC use. The majority of findings concern the connectivity of the left FFA to the left supramarginal gyrus (SMG), which is a key region in cognitive empathy. While connectivity in anti-androgenic COC users differs from never users irrespective of the duration of COC use already at rest, connectivity in androgenic COC users decreases with longer duration of use during face recognition. Furthermore, longer duration of androgenic COC use was related to reduced identification accuracy, as well as increased connectivity of the left FFA to the right orbitofrontal cortex. Accordingly, the FFA and SMG emerge as promising ROIs for future randomized controlled trials on the effects of COC use on face processing.

A correlational study investigating whether semantic knowledge facilitates face identity processing

The ability to recognize faces is a fundamental skill in human social interaction. While much research has focused on the recognition of familiar faces, there is growing interest in understanding the cognitive processes underlying the recognition of unfamiliar faces. Previous studies have suggested that both semantic knowledge and physical features play a role in unfamiliar face recognition, but the nature of their relationship is not well understood. This study examines the relationship between unfamiliar face recognition ability and the encoding abilities of semantic knowledge and physical features for famous faces. Using the Gorilla platform, a large group of participants (N = 66) with a broad age range completed three tasks: a challenging unfamiliar face matching task and Famous People Recognition Tests 1 and 2 to evaluate semantic and physical feature encoding abilities, respectively. Results indicate positive correlations between encoding abilities for both semantic knowledge and physical features of familiar faces with Model Face Matching Task scores. Additionally, the encoding ability for semantic knowledge was found to be positively associated with that of physical features.

Comparative analysis of four nuclei in the human brainstem: Individual differences, left-right asymmetry, species differences

Introduction

It is commonly thought that while the organization of the cerebral cortex changes dramatically over evolution, the organization of the brainstem is conserved across species. It is further assumed that, as in other species, brainstem organization is similar from one human to the next. We will review our data on four human brainstem nuclei that suggest that both ideas may need modification.

Methods

We have studied the neuroanatomical and neurochemical organization of the nucleus paramedianus dorsalis (PMD), the principal nucleus of the inferior olive (IOpr), the arcuate nucleus of the medulla (Arc) and the dorsal cochlear nucleus (DC). We compared these human brainstem nuclei to nuclei in other mammals including chimpanzees, monkeys, cats and rodents. We studied human cases from the Witelson Normal Brain collection using Nissl and immunostained sections, and examined archival Nissl and immunostained sections from other species.

Results

We found significant individual variability in the size and shape of brainstem structures among humans. There is left-right asymmetry in the size and appearance of nuclei, dramatically so in the IOpr and Arc. In humans there are nuclei, e.g., the PMD and the Arc, not seen in several other species. In addition, there are brainstem structures that are conserved across species but show major expansion in humans, e.g., the IOpr. Finally, there are nuclei, e.g. the DC, that show major differences in structure among species.

Discussion

Overall, the results suggest several principles of human brainstem organization that distinguish humans from other species. Studying the functional correlates of, and the genetic contributions to, these brainstem characteristics are important future research directions.

Assessing the coupling between local neural activity and global connectivity fluctuations: Application to human intracranial electroencephalography during a cognitive task

Cognitive-relevant information is processed by different brain areas that cooperate to eventually produce a response. The relationship between local activity and global brain states during such processes, however, remains for the most part unexplored. To address this question, we designed a simple face-recognition task performed in patients with drug-resistant epilepsy and monitored with intracranial electroencephalography (EEG). Based on our observations, we developed a novel analytical framework (named "local-global" framework) to statistically correlate the brain activity in every recorded gray-matter region with the widespread connectivity fluctuations as proxy to identify concurrent local activations and global brain phenomena that may plausibly reflect a common functional network during cognition. The application of the local-global framework to the data from three subjects showed that similar connectivity fluctuations found across patients were mainly coupled to the local activity of brain areas involved in face information processing. In particular, our findings provide preliminary evidence that the reported global measures might be a novel signature of functional brain activity reorganization when a stimulus is processed in a task context regardless of the specific recorded areas.

Local similarity of activity patterns during auditory and visual processing

Neuroimaging studies have shown that brain activity is variable and changes according to stimuli and the environmental context, reflecting brain coding or information representations at different processing levels. However, little is known about activity organization that reflects coding strategies. Here, we explored and compared two different coding approaches, spatial via cross-correlation and intensity-based coding using mutual information. Using two fMRI datasets and different seeds, we searched for the spatial and intensity-based similarities with the seeds in brain activity. Our results showed that, apart from the seed regions, significant regions detected by intensity-based similarity analysis differ completely from those found using cross-correlation. These findings may indicate that information shared through spatial coding differs from that transmitted via non-spatial coding processes. Our results suggest that brain coding is organized in several different ways to optimize information processing.

Representational structure of fMRI/EEG responses to dynamic facial expressions

Face perception provides an excellent example of how the brain processes nuanced visual differences and transforms them into behaviourally useful representations of identities and emotional expressions. While a body of literature has looked into the spatial and temporal neural processing of facial expressions, few studies have used a dimensionally varying set of stimuli containing subtle perceptual changes. In the current study, we used 48 short videos varying dimensionally in their intensity and category (happy, angry, surprised) of expression. We measured both fMRI and EEG responses to these video clips and compared the neural response patterns to the predictions of models based on image features and models derived from behavioural ratings of the stimuli. In fMRI, the inferior frontal gyrus face area (IFG-FA) carried information related only to the intensity of the expression, independent of image-based models. The superior temporal sulcus (STS), inferior temporal (IT) and lateral occipital (LO) areas contained information about both expression category and intensity. In the EEG, the coding of expression category and low-level image features were most pronounced at around 400 ms. The expression intensity model did not, however, correlate significantly at any EEG timepoint. Our results show a specific role for IFG-FA in the coding of expressions and suggest that it contains image and category invariant representations of expression intensity.

Action and emotion perception in Parkinson's disease: A neuroimaging meta-analysis

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The neural substrates for action and emotion perception deficits in PD are still unclear.

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We addressed this issue via coordinate-based meta-analyses of previous fMRI data.

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PD patients exhibit decreased response in the basal ganglia.

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PD patients exhibit a trend toward decreased response in the parietal areas.

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PD patients exhibit a trend toward increased activation in the posterior cerebellum.

Patients with Parkinson disease (PD) may show impairments in the social perception. Whether these deficits have been consistently reported, it remains to be clarified which brain alterations subtend them. To this aim, we conducted a neuroimaging meta-analysis to compare the brain activity during social perception in patients with PD versus healthy controls. Our results show that PD patients exhibit a significantly decreased response in the basal ganglia (putamen and pallidum) and a trend toward decreased activity in the mirror system, particularly in the left parietal cortex (inferior parietal lobule and intraparietal sulcus). This reduced activation may be tied to a disruption of cognitive resonance mechanisms and may thus constitute the basis of impaired others’ representations underlying action and emotion perception. We also found increased activation in the posterior cerebellum in PD, although only in a within-group analysis and not in comparison with healthy controls. This cerebellar activation may reflect compensatory mechanisms, an aspect that deserves further investigation. We discuss the clinical implications of our findings for the development of novel social skill training programs for PD patients.

Face processing in the temporal lobe

Face perception is a socially important but complex process with many stages and many facets. There is substantial evidence from many sources that it involves a large extent of the temporal lobe, from the ventral occipitotemporal cortex and superior temporal sulci to anterior temporal regions. While early human neuroimaging work suggested a core face network consisting of the occipital face area, fusiform face area, and posterior superior temporal sulcus, studies in both humans and monkeys show a system of face patches stretching from posterior to anterior in both the superior temporal sulcus and inferotemporal cortex. Sophisticated techniques such as fMRI adaptation have shown that these face-activated regions show responses that have many of the attributes of human face processing. Lesions of some of these regions in humans lead to variants of prosopagnosia, the inability to recognize the identity of a face. Lesion, imaging, and electrophysiologic data all suggest that there is a segregation between identity and expression processing, though some suggest this may be better characterized as a distinction between static and dynamic facial information.

Posterior brain sensorimotor recruitment for inhibition of delayed responses in children

Inhibitory control, the ability to suppress irrelevant thoughts or actions, is central to cognitive and social development. Protracted maturation of frontal brain networks has been reported as a major restraint for this ability, yet, young children, when motivated, successfully inhibit delayed responses. A better understanding of the age-dependent neural inhibitory mechanism operating during the awaiting-to-respond window in children may elucidate this conundrum. We recorded ERPs from children and parental adults to a visual-spatial working memory task with delayed responses. Cortical activation elicited during the first 1000 ms of the awaiting-to-respond window showed, as predicted by prior studies, early inhibitory effects in prefrontal ERPs (P200, 160-260 ms) associated with top-down attentional-biasing, and later effects in parietal/occipital ERPs (P300, 270-650 ms) associated with selective inhibition of task-irrelevant stimuli/responses and recurrent memory retrieval. Children successfully inhibited delayed responses and performed with a high level of accuracy (often over 90%), although, the prefrontal P200 displayed reduced amplitude and uniformly delayed peak latency, suggesting low efficacy of top-down attentional-biasing. P300, however, with no significant age-contrasts in latency was markedly elevated in children over the occipital/inferior parietal regions, with effects stronger in younger children. These results provide developmental evidence supporting the sensorimotor recruitment model of visual-spatial working memory relying on the occipital/parietal regions of the early maturing dorsal-visual network. The evidence is in line with the concept of age-dependent variability in the recruitment of cognitive inhibitory networks, complementing the former predominant focus on frontal lobes.

Spatial Integration in Normal Face Processing and Its Breakdown in Congenital Prosopagnosia

Congenital prosopagnosia (CP), a life-long impairment in face processing that occurs in the absence of any apparent brain damage, provides a unique model in which to explore the psychological and neural bases of normal face processing. The goal of this review is to offer a theoretical and conceptual framework that may account for the underlying cognitive and neural deficits in CP. This framework may also provide a novel perspective in which to reconcile some conflicting results that permits the expansion of the research in this field in new directions. The crux of this framework lies in linking the known behavioral and neural underpinnings of face processing and their impairments in CP to a model incorporating grid cell-like activity in the entorhinal cortex. Moreover, it stresses the involvement of active, spatial scanning of the environment with eye movements and implicates their critical role in face encoding and recognition. To begin with, we describe the main behavioral and neural characteristics of CP, and then lay down the building blocks of our proposed model, referring to the existing literature supporting this new framework. We then propose testable predictions and conclude with open questions for future research stemming from this model. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Vision Science, Volume 7 is September 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Differential Modulation of Effective Connectivity in the Brain's Extended Face Processing System by Fearful and Sad Facial Expressions

The processing of emotional facial expressions is underpinned by the integration of information from a distributed network of brain regions. Despite investigations into how different emotional expressions alter the functional relationships within this network, there remains limited research examining which regions drive these interactions. This study investigated effective connectivity during the processing of sad and fearful facial expressions to better understand how these stimuli differentially modulate emotional face processing circuitry. Ninety-eight healthy human adolescents and young adults, aged between 15 and 25 years, underwent an implicit emotional face processing fMRI task. Using dynamic causal modeling (DCM), we examined five brain regions implicated in face processing. These were restricted to the right hemisphere and included the occipital and fusiform face areas, amygdala, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). Processing sad and fearful facial expressions were associated with greater positive connectivity from the amygdala to dlPFC. Only the processing of fearful facial expressions was associated with greater negative connectivity from the vmPFC to amygdala. Compared with processing sad faces, processing fearful faces was associated with significantly greater connectivity from the amygdala to dlPFC. No difference was found between the processing of these expressions and the connectivity from the vmPFC to amygdala. Overall, our findings indicate that connectivity from the amygdala and dlPFC appears to be responding to dimensional features which differ between these expressions, likely those relating to arousal. Further research is necessary to examine whether this relationship is also observable for positively valenced emotions.

Event-related network changes unfold the dynamics of cortical integration during face processing

Face perception arises from a collective activation of brain regions in the occipital, parietal and temporal cortices. Despite the wide acknowledgment that these regions act in an intertwined network, the network behavior itself is poorly understood. Here we present a study in which time-varying connectivity estimated from EEG activity elicited by facial expressions presentation was characterized using graph-theoretical measures of node centrality and global network topology. Results revealed that face perception results from a dynamic reshaping of the network architecture, characterized by the emergence of hubs located in the occipital and temporal regions of the scalp. The importance of these nodes can be observed from the early stages of visual processing and reaches a climax in the same time-window in which the face-sensitive N170 is observed. Furthermore, using Granger causality, we found that the time-evolving centrality of these nodes is associated with ERP amplitude, providing a direct link between the network state and local neural response. Additionally, investigating global network topology by means of small-worldness and modularity, we found that face processing requires a functional network with a strong small-world organization that maximizes integration, at the cost of segregated subdivisions. Interestingly, we found that this architecture is not static, but instead, it is implemented by the network from stimulus onset to ~200 ms. Altogether, this study reveals the event-related changes underlying face processing at the network level, suggesting that a distributed processing mechanism operates through dynamically weighting the contribution of the cortical regions involved.

Finding Distributed Needles in Neural Haystacks

The human cortex encodes information in complex networks that can be anatomically dispersed and variable in their microstructure across individuals. Using simulations with neural network models, we show that contemporary statistical methods for functional brain imaging-including univariate contrast, searchlight multivariate pattern classification, and whole-brain decoding with L1 or L2 regularization-each have critical and complementary blind spots under these conditions. We then introduce the sparse-overlapping-sets (SOS) LASSO-a whole-brain multivariate approach that exploits structured sparsity to find network-distributed information-and show in simulation that it captures the advantages of other approaches while avoiding their limitations. When applied to fMRI data to find neural responses that discriminate visually presented faces from other visual stimuli, each method yields a different result, but existing approaches all support the canonical view that face perception engages localized areas in posterior occipital and temporal regions. In contrast, SOS LASSO uncovers a network spanning all four lobes of the brain. The result cannot reflect spurious selection of out-of-system areas because decoding accuracy remains exceedingly high even when canonical face and place systems are removed from the dataset. When used to discriminate visual scenes from other stimuli, the same approach reveals a localized signal consistent with other methods-illustrating that SOS LASSO can detect both widely distributed and localized representational structure. Thus, structured sparsity can provide an unbiased method for testing claims of functional localization. For faces and possibly other domains, such decoding may reveal representations more widely distributed than previously suspected.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Brain systems represent information as patterns of activation over neural populations connected in networks that can be widely distributed anatomically, variable across individuals, and intermingled with other networks. We show that four widespread statistical approaches to functional brain imaging have critical blind spots in this scenario and use simulations with neural network models to illustrate why. We then introduce a new approach designed specifically to find radically distributed representations in neural networks. In simulation and in fMRI data collected in the well studied domain of face perception, the new approach discovers extensive signal missed by the other methods-suggesting that prior functional imaging work may have significantly underestimated the degree to which neurocognitive representations are distributed and variable across individuals.

Multiple overlapping dynamic patterns of the visual sensory network in schizophrenia

Although visual processing impairments have been explored in schizophrenia (SZ), their underlying neurobiology of the visual processing impairments has not been widely studied. Also, while some research has hinted at differences in information transfer and flow in SZ, there are few investigations of the dynamics of functional connectivity within visual networks. In this study, we analyzed resting-state fMRI data of the visual sensory network (VSN) in 160 healthy control (HC) subjects and 151 SZ subjects. We estimated 9 independent components within the VSN. Then, we calculated the dynamic functional network connectivity (dFNC) using the Pearson correlation. Next, using k-means clustering, we partitioned the dFNCs into five distinct states, and then we calculated the portion of time each subject spent in each state, which we termed the occupancy rate (OCR). Using OCR, we compared HC with SZ subjects and investigated the link between OCR and visual learning in SZ subjects. Besides, we compared the VSN functional connectivity of SZ and HC subjects in each state. We found that this network is indeed highly dynamic. Each state represents a unique connectivity pattern of fluctuations in VSN FNC, and all states showed significant disruption in SZ. Overall, HC showed stronger connectivity within the VSN in states. SZ subjects spent more time in a state in which the connectivity between the middle temporal gyrus and other regions of VNS is highly negative. Besides, OCR in a state with strong positive connectivity between the middle temporal gyrus and other regions correlated significantly with visual learning scores in SZ.

Nature and nurture shape structural connectivity in the face processing brain network

Face processing is a key ability facilitating social cognition. Only a few studies explored how nature and nurture shape face processing ontogeny at the behavioral and neural level. Also, very little is known about the contributions of nature and nurture to the establishment of white matter fibers supporting this specific human ability. The main purpose of this study was to assess genetic and environmental influences on white matter bundles connecting atlas-defined and functionally-defined face-responsive areas in the brain. Diffusion weighted images from 408 twins (monozygotic = 264, dizygotic = 144) were obtained from the WU-Minn Human Connectome Project. Fractional anisotropy - a widely used measure of fiber quality - of seven white matter tracts in the face network and ten global white matter tracts was analyzed by means of Structural Equation Modeling for twin data. Results revealed small and moderate genetic effects on face network fiber quality in addition to their shared variance with global brain white matter integrity. Furthermore, a theoretically expected common latent factor accounted for limited genetic and larger environmental variance in multiple face network fibers. The findings suggest that both genetic and environmental factors explain individual differences in fiber quality within the face network, as compared with much larger genetic effects on global brain white matter quality. In addition to heritability, individual-specific environmental influences on the face processing brain network are large, a finding that suggests to connect nature and nurture views on this remarkably specific human ability.

Frontoparietal microstructural damage mediates age-dependent working memory decline in face and body information processing: Evidence for dichotomic hemispheric bias mechanisms

Age-associated damage in the microstructure of frontally-based connections (e.g. genu of the corpus callosum and superior longitudinal fasciculus) is believed to lead to impairments in processing speed and executive function. Using mediation analysis, we tested the potential contribution of callosal and frontoparietal association tracts to age-dependent effects on cognition/executive function as measured with 1-back working memory tasks for visual stimulus categories (i.e. faces and non-emotional bodies) in a group of 55 healthy adults (age range 23-79 years). Constrained spherical deconvolution-based tractography was employed to reconstruct the genu/prefrontal section of the corpus callosum (GCC) and the central/second branch of the superior longitudinal fasciculus (CB-SLF). Age was associated with (i) reductions in fractional anisotropy (FA) in the GCC and in the right and left CB-SLF and (iii) decline in visual object category processing. Mediation analysis revealed that microstructural damage in right hemispheric CB-SLF is associated with age-dependent decline in face processing likely reflecting the stimulus-specific/holistic nature of face processing within dedicated/specialized frontoparietal routes. By contrast, microstructural damage in left hemispheric CB-SLF associated with age-dependent decline in non-emotional body processing, consistent with the more abstract nature of non-emotional body categories. In sum, our findings suggest that frontoparietal microstructural damage mediates age-dependent decline in face and body information processing in a manner that reflects the hemispheric bias of holistic vs. abstract nature of face and non-emotional body category processing.

Neural processing of facial identity and expression in adults with and without autism: A multi-method approach

The ability to recognize faces and facial expressions is a common human talent. It has, however, been suggested to be impaired in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The goal of this study was to compare the processing of facial identity and emotion between individuals with ASD and neurotypicals (NTs). Behavioural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data from 46 young adults (aged 17-23 years, N_ASD = 22, N_NT = 24) was analysed. During fMRI data acquisition, participants discriminated between short clips of a face transitioning from a neutral to an emotional expression. Stimuli included four identities and six emotions. We performed behavioural, univariate, multi-voxel, adaptation and functional connectivity analyses to investigate potential group differences. The ASD-group did not differ from the NT-group on behavioural identity and expression processing tasks. At the neural level, we found no differences in average neural activation, neural activation patterns and neural adaptation to faces in face-related brain regions. In terms of functional connectivity, we found that amygdala seems to be more strongly connected to inferior occipital cortex and V1 in individuals with ASD. Overall, the findings indicate that neural representations of facial identity and expression have a similar quality in individuals with and without ASD, but some regions containing these representations are connected differently in the extended face processing network.

Mapping neural activity patterns to contextualized fearful facial expressions onto callous-unemotional (CU) traits: intersubject representational similarity analysis reveals less variation among high-CU adolescents

Callous-unemotional (CU) traits are early-emerging personality features characterized by deficits in empathy, concern for others, and remorse following social transgressions. One of the interpersonal deficits most consistently associated with CU traits is impaired behavioral and neurophysiological responsiveness to fearful facial expressions. However, the facial expression paradigms traditionally employed in neuroimaging are often ambiguous with respect to the nature of threat (i.e., is the perceiver the threat, or is something else in the environment?). In the present study, 30 adolescents with varying CU traits viewed fearful facial expressions cued to three different contexts ("afraid for you," "afraid of you," "afraid for self") while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Univariate analyses found that mean right amygdala activity during the "afraid for self" context was negatively associated with CU traits. With the goal of disentangling idiosyncratic stimulus-driven neural responses, we employed intersubject representational similarity analysis to link intersubject similarities in multivoxel neural response patterns to contextualized fearful expressions with differential intersubject models of CU traits. Among low-CU adolescents, neural response patterns while viewing fearful faces were most consistently similar early in the visual processing stream and among regions implicated in affective responding, but were more idiosyncratic as emotional face information moved up the cortical processing hierarchy. By contrast, high-CU adolescents' neural response patterns consistently aligned along the entire cortical hierarchy (but diverged among low-CU youths). Observed patterns varied across contexts, suggesting that interpretations of fearful expressions depend to an extent on neural response patterns and are further shaped by levels of CU traits.

Profiles on the Orientation Discrimination Processing of Human Faces

Face recognition is a crucial subject for public health, as socialization is one of the main characteristics for full citizenship. However, good recognizers would be distinguished, not only by the number of faces they discriminate but also by the number of rejected stimuli as unfamiliar. When it comes to face recognition, it is important to remember that position, to some extent, would not entail a high cognitive cost, unlike other processes in similar areas of the brain. The aim of this paper was to examine participant’s recognition profiles according to face position. For this reason, a recognition task was carried out by employing the Karolinska Directed Emotional Faces. Reaction times and accuracy were employed as dependent variables and a cluster analysis was carried out. A total of two profiles were identified in participants’ performance, which differ in position in terms of reaction times but not accuracy. The results can be described as follows: first, it is possible to identify performance profiles in visual recognition of faces that differ in position in terms of reaction times, not accuracy; secondly, results suggest a bias towards the left. At the applied level, this could be of interest with a view to conducting training programs in face recognition.

Functional Connectivity within and beyond the Face Network Is Related to Reduced Discrimination of Degraded Faces in Young and Older Adults

Degrading face stimuli reduces face discrimination in both young and older adults, but the brain correlates of this decline in performance are not fully understood. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine the effects of degraded face stimuli on face and nonface brain networks and tested whether these changes would predict the linear declines seen in performance. We found decreased activity in the face network (FN) and a decrease in the similarity of functional connectivity (FC) in the FN across conditions as degradation increased but no effect of age. FC in whole-brain networks also changed with increasing degradation, including increasing FC between the visual network and cognitive control networks. Older adults showed reduced modulation of this whole-brain FC pattern. The strongest predictors of within-participant decline in accuracy were changes in whole-brain network FC and FC similarity of the FN. There was no influence of age on these brain-behavior relations. These results suggest that a systems-level approach beyond the FN is required to understand the brain correlates of performance decline when faces are obscured with noise. In addition, the association between brain and behavior changes was maintained into older age, despite the dampened FC response to face degradation seen in older adults.

Brain Networks Processing Temporal Information in Dynamic Facial Expressions

This fMRI study examines the role of local and global motion information in facial movements during exposure to novel dynamic face stimuli. We found that synchronous expressions distinctively engaged medial prefrontal areas in the rostral and caudal sectors of anterior cingulate cortex (r/cACC) extending to inferior supplementary motor areas, as well as motor cortex and bilateral superior frontal gyrus (global temporal-spatial processing). Asynchronous expressions in which one part of the face unfolded before the other activated more the right superior temporal sulcus (STS) and inferior frontal gyrus (local temporal-spatial processing). These differences in temporal dynamics had no effect on visual face-responsive areas. Dynamic causal modeling analysis further showed that processing of asynchronous expression features was associated with a differential information flow, centered on STS, which received direct input from occipital cortex and projected to the amygdala. Moreover, STS and amygdala displayed selective interactions with cACC where the integration of both local and global motion cues could take place. These results provide new evidence for a role of local and global temporal dynamics in emotional expressions, extracted in partly separate brain pathways. Importantly, we show that dynamic expressions with synchronous movement cues may distinctively engage brain areas responsible for motor execution of expressions.

Brain Responses to Emotional Infant Faces in New Mothers and Nulliparous Women

The experience of motherhood is one of the most salient events in a woman’s life. Motherhood is associated with a series of neurophysiological, psychological, and behavioral changes that allow women to better adapt to their new role as mothers. Infants communicate their needs and physiological states mainly through salient emotional expressions, and maternal responses to infant signals are critical for infant survival and development. In this study, we investigated the whole brain functional response to emotional infant faces in 20 new mothers and 22 nulliparous women during functional magnetic resonance imaging scans. New mothers showed higher brain activation in regions involved in infant facial expression processing and empathic and mentalizing networks than nulliparous women. Furthermore, magnitudes of the activation of the left parahippocampal gyrus and the left fusiform gyrus, recruited during facial expression processing, were positively correlated with empathic concern (EC) scores in new mothers when viewing emotional (happy-sad) faces contrasted to neutral faces. Taken together, these results indicate that the experience of being a mother affects human brain responses in visual and social cognitive brain areas and in brain areas associated with theory-of-mind related and empathic processing.

The occipital face area is causally involved in identity-related visual-semantic associations

Faces are processed in a network of areas within regions of the ventral visual stream. However, familiar faces typically are characterized by additional associated information, such as episodic memories or semantic biographical information as well. The acquisition of such non-sensory, identity-specific knowledge plays a crucial role in our ability to recognize and identify someone we know. The occipital face area (OFA), an early part of the core face-processing network, is recently found to be involved in the formation of identity-specific memory traces but it is currently unclear if this role is limited to unimodal visual information. The current experiments used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to test whether the OFA is involved in the association of a face with identity-specific semantic information, such as the name or job title of a person. We applied an identity-learning task where unfamiliar faces were presented together with a name and a job title in the first encoding phase. Simultaneously, TMS pulses were applied either to the left or right OFA or to Cz, as a control. In the subsequent retrieval phase, the previously seen faces were presented either with two names or with two job titles and the task of the participants was to select the semantic information previously learned. We found that the stimulation of the right or left OFA reduced subsequent retrieval performance for the face-associated job titles. This suggests a causal role of the OFA in the association of faces and related semantic information. Furthermore, in contrast to prior findings, we did not observe hemispherical differences of the TMS intervention, suggesting a similar role of the left and right OFAs in the formation of the visual-semantic associations. Our results suggest the necessity to reconsider the hierarchical face-perception models and support the distributed and recurrent models.

Mapping Mind-Brain Development: Towards a Comprehensive Theory

The relations between the developing mind and developing brain are explored. We outline a theory of intellectual development postulating that the mind comprises four systems of processes (domain-specific, attention and working memory, reasoning, and cognizance) developing in four cycles (episodic, realistic, rule-based, and principle-based representations, emerging at birth, 2, 6, and 11 years, respectively), with two phases in each. Changes in reasoning relate to processing efficiency in the first phase and working memory in the second phase. Awareness of mental processes is recycled with the changes in each cycle and drives their integration into the representational unit of the next cycle. Brain research shows that each type of processes is served by specialized brain networks. Domain-specific processes are rooted in sensory cortices; working memory processes are mainly rooted in hippocampal, parietal, and prefrontal cortices; abstraction and alignment processes are rooted in parietal, frontal, and prefrontal and medial cortices. Information entering these networks is available to awareness processes. Brain networks change along the four cycles, in precision, connectivity, and brain rhythms. Principles of mind-brain interaction are discussed.

Short-range and long-range neuronal oscillatory coupling in multiple frequency bands during face perception

Neuronal oscillatory activity has been considered to play a key role in face processing through its functional effect on information flow and exchange in human brain. Specifically, most neuronal oscillatory activity is measured in different rhythm based on the electrophysiological signal at single channel level. Although, the neuronal oscillatory coupling between neuronal assembles is associated with the information flow and exchange between brain regions, few studies focus on this type of neuronal oscillatory activity in face processing. In this study, the neuronal oscillatory coupling was investigated based on electroencephalographic (EEG) data of 20 participants, which were recorded when the participants were in a face/non-face perceptual task. The phase lag index (PLI) was used to assess the neuronal oscillatory coupling between brain regions in typical frequency bands. Enhanced short-range coupling was observed in theta (4-8 Hz) and alpha (8-12 Hz) band over the frontal region, in gamma1 (30-49 Hz) band over the left posterior and occipito-temporal regions, and in gamma2 (51-75 Hz) over the right temporal region during face perception compared with non-face perception. Long-range coupling was increased in theta and gamma band over the right hemisphere during face perception. Moreover, increased long-range coupling was observed in alpha band over the left and right hemisphere respectively during face perception. The results suggested that frequency-specific neuronal oscillatory coupling within and between regions of frontal cortex and the ventral visual pathway played an important role in face perception, which might reflect underlying neural mechanism of face perception.

Acute administration of methylphenidate differentially affects cortical processing of emotional facial expressions in attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder children as studied by functional near-infrared spectroscopy

Significance: It has been reported that children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have impairment in the recognition of angry but not of happy facial expressions, and they show atypical cortical activation patterns in response to facial expressions. However, little is known about neural mechanisms underlying the impaired recognition of facial expressions in school-aged children with ADHD and the effects of acute medication on their processing of facial expressions. Aim: We aimed to investigate the possibility that acute administration of methylphenidate (MPH) affects processing of facial expressions in ADHD children. Approach: We measured the hemodynamic changes in the bilateral temporo-occipital areas of ADHD children observing the happy and angry facial expressions before and 1.5 h after MPH or placebo administration in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover design study. Results: We found that, regardless of medication, happy expressions induced increased oxyhemoglobin (oxy-Hb) responses in the right inferior occipital region but not in the superior temporal region. For angry expressions, oxy-Hb responses increased after MPH administration, but not after placebo administration, in the left inferior occipital area, whereas there was no significant activation before MPH administration. Conclusions: Our results suggest that (1) ADHD children consistently recruit the right inferior occipital regions to process happy expressions and (2) MPH administration to ADHD children enhances cortical activation in the left inferior occipital regions when they process angry expressions.

Escitalopram ameliorates differences in neural activity between healthy comparison and major depressive disorder groups on an fMRI Emotional conflict task: A CAN-BIND-1 study

BACKGROUND

Identifying objective biomarkers can assist in predicting remission/non-remission to treatment, improving remission rates, and reducing illness burden in major depressive disorder (MDD).

METHODS

Sixteen MDD 8-week remitters (MDD-8), twelve 16-week remitters (MDD-16), 14 non-remitters (MDD-NR) and 30 healthy comparison participants (HC) completed a functional magnetic resonance imaging emotional conflict task at baseline, prior to treatment with escitalopram, and 8 weeks after treatment initiation. Patients were followed 16 weeks to assess remitter status.

RESULTS

All groups demonstrated emotional Stroop in reaction time (RT) at baseline and Week 8. There were no baseline differences between HC and MDD-8, MDD-16, or MDD-NR in RT or accuracy. By Week 8, MDD-8 demonstrated poorer accuracy compared to HC. Compared to HC, the baseline blood-oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signal was decreased in MDD-8 in brain-stem and thalamus; in MDD-16 in lateral occipital cortex, middle temporal gyrus, and cuneal cortex; in MDD-NR in lingual and occipital fusiform gyri, thalamus, putamen, caudate, cingulate gyrus, insula, cuneal cortex, and middle temporal gyrus. By Week 8, there were no BOLD activity differences between MDD groups and HC.

LIMITATIONS

The Emotional Conflict Task lacks a neutral (non-emotional) condition, restricting interpretation of how mood may influence perception of non-emotionally valenced stimuli.

CONCLUSIONS

The Emotional Conflict Task is not an objective biomarker for remission trajectory in patients with MDD receiving escitalopram treatment. Escitalopram may have influenced emotion recognition in MDD groups in terms of augmented accuracy and BOLD signal in response to an Emotional Conflict Task, following 8 weeks of escitalopram treatment.

Self-Regulation of the Fusiform Face Area in Autism Spectrum: A Feasibility Study With Real-Time fMRI Neurofeedback

One of the most important and early impairments in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is the abnormal visual processing of human faces. This deficit has been associated with hypoactivation of the fusiform face area (FFA), one of the main hubs of the face-processing network. Neurofeedback based on real-time fMRI (rtfMRI-NF) is a technique that allows the self-regulation of circumscribed brain regions, leading to specific neural modulation and behavioral changes. The aim of the present study was to train participants with ASD to achieve up-regulation of the FFA using rtfMRI-NF, to investigate the neural effects of FFA up-regulation in ASD. For this purpose, three groups of volunteers with normal I.Q. and fluent language were recruited to participate in a rtfMRI-NF protocol of eight training runs in 2 days. Five subjects with ASD participated as part of the experimental group and received contingent feedback to up-regulate bilateral FFA. Two control groups, each one with three participants with typical development (TD), underwent the same protocol: one group with contingent feedback and the other with sham feedback. Whole-brain and functional connectivity analysis using each fusiform gyrus as independent seeds were carried out. The results show that individuals with TD and ASD can achieve FFA up-regulation with contingent feedback. RtfMRI-NF in ASD produced more numerous and stronger short-range connections among brain areas of the ventral visual stream and an absence of the long-range connections to insula and inferior frontal gyrus, as observed in TD subjects. Recruitment of inferior frontal gyrus was observed in both groups during FAA up-regulation. However, insula and caudate nucleus were only recruited in subjects with TD. These results could be explained from a neurodevelopment perspective as a lack of the normal specialization of visual processing areas, and a compensatory mechanism to process visual information of faces. RtfMRI-NF emerges as a potential tool to study visual processing network in ASD, and to explore its clinical potential.

Maturational Changes in Human Dorsal and Ventral Visual Networks

Developmental neuroimaging studies report the emergence of increasingly diverse cognitive functions as closely entangled with a rise-fall modulation of cortical thickness (CTh), structural cortical and white-matter connectivity, and a time-course for the experience-dependent selective elimination of the overproduced synapses. We examine which of two visual processing networks, the dorsal (DVN; prefrontal, parietal nodes) or ventral (VVN; frontal-temporal, fusiform nodes) matures first, thus leading the neuro-cognitive developmental trajectory. Three age-dependent measures are reported: (i) the CTh at network nodes; (ii) the matrix of intra-network structural connectivity (edges); and (iii) the proficiency in network-related neuropsychological tests. Typically developing children (age ~6 years), adolescents (~11 years), and adults (~21 years) were tested using multiple-acquisition structural T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and neuropsychology. MRI images reconstructed into a gray/white/pial matter boundary model were used for CTh evaluation. No significant group differences in CTh and in the matrix of edges were found for DVN (except for the left prefrontal), but a significantly thicker cortex in children for VVN with reduced prefrontal ventral-fusiform connectivity and with an abundance of connections in adolescents. The higher performance in children on tests related to DVN corroborates the age-dependent MRI structural connectivity findings. The current findings are consistent with an earlier maturational course of DVN.

Developmental Reorganization of the Core and Extended Face Networks Revealed by Global Functional Connectivity

Prior studies on development of functional specialization in human brain mainly focus on age-related increases in regional activation and connectivity among regions. However, a few recent studies on the face network demonstrate age-related decrease in face-specialized activation in the extended face network (EFN), in addition to increase in activation in the core face network (CFN). Here we used a voxel-based global brain connectivity approach to investigate whether development of the face network exhibited both increase and decrease in network connectivity. We found the voxel-wise resting-state functional connectivity (FC) within the CFN increased with age in bilateral posterior superior temporal sulcus, suggesting the integration of the CFN during development. Interestingly, the FC of the voxels in the EFN to the right fusiform face area and occipital face area decreased with age, suggesting that the CFN segregated from the EFN during development. Moreover, the age-related connectivity in the CFN was related to behavioral performance in face processing. Overall, our study demonstrated developmental reorganization of the face network achieved by both integration within the CFN and segregation of the CFN from the EFN, which may account for the simultaneous increases and decreases in neural activation during the development of the face network.

Network Representations of Facial and Bodily Expressions: Evidence From Multivariate Connectivity Pattern Classification

Emotions can be perceived from both facial and bodily expressions. Our previous study has found the successful decoding of facial expressions based on the functional connectivity (FC) patterns. However, the role of the FC patterns in the recognition of bodily expressions remained unclear, and no neuroimaging studies have adequately addressed the question of whether emotions perceiving from facial and bodily expressions are processed rely upon common or different neural networks. To address this, the present study collected functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data from a block design experiment with facial and bodily expression videos as stimuli (three emotions: anger, fear, and joy), and conducted multivariate pattern classification analysis based on the estimated FC patterns. We found that in addition to the facial expressions, bodily expressions could also be successfully decoded based on the large-scale FC patterns. The emotion classification accuracies for the facial expressions were higher than that for the bodily expressions. Further contributive FC analysis showed that emotion-discriminative networks were widely distributed in both hemispheres, containing regions that ranged from primary visual areas to higher-level cognitive areas. Moreover, for a particular emotion, discriminative FCs for facial and bodily expressions were distinct. Together, our findings highlight the key role of the FC patterns in the emotion processing, indicating how large-scale FC patterns reconfigure in processing of facial and bodily expressions, and suggest the distributed neural representation for the emotion recognition. Furthermore, our results also suggest that the human brain employs separate network representations for facial and bodily expressions of the same emotions. This study provides new evidence for the network representations for emotion perception and may further our understanding of the potential mechanisms underlying body language emotion recognition.

Differentiation of functional networks during long-term memory retrieval in children and adolescents

The processes that characterize the neural development of long-term memory (LTM) are largely unknown. In young adults, the degree of activation of a single large-scale memory network corresponds to the level of contextual detail involved; thus, differentiating between autobiographical, episodic, and semantic retrieval. In contrast to young adults, children and adolescents retrieve fewer contextual details, suggesting that they might not yet engage the entire memory circuitry and that this brain recruitment might lack the characteristic contextual differentiation found in adults. Twenty-one children (10-12 years of age), 20 adolescents (14-16 years of age), and 22 young adults (20-35 years of age) were assessed on a previously validated LTM retrieval task, while their brain activity was measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging. The results demonstrate that children, adolescents, and adults recruit a left-lateralized subset of the large-scale memory network, comprising semantic and language processing regions, with neither developmental group showing evidence of contextual differentiation within this network. Additionally, children and adolescents recruited occipital and parietal regions during all memory recall conditions, in contrast to adults who engaged the entire large-scale memory network, as described previously. Finally, a significant covariance between age and brain activation indicates that the reliance on occipital and parietal regions during memory retrieval decreases with age. These results suggest that both children and adolescents rely on semantic processing to retrieve long-term memories, which, we argue, may restrict the integration of contextual detail required for complex episodic and autobiographical memory retrieval.

Dynamic functional network connectivity in Huntington's disease and its associations with motor and cognitive measures

Dynamic functional network connectivity (dFNC) is an expansion of traditional, static FNC that measures connectivity variation among brain networks throughout scan duration. We used a large resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI) sample from the PREDICT-HD study (N = 183 Huntington disease gene mutation carriers [HDgmc] and N = 78 healthy control [HC] participants) to examine whole-brain dFNC and its associations with CAG repeat length as well as the product of scaled CAG length and age, a variable representing disease burden. We also tested for relationships between functional connectivity and motor and cognitive measurements. Group independent component analysis was applied to rs-fMRI data to obtain whole-brain resting state networks. FNC was defined as the correlation between RSN time-courses. Dynamic FNC behavior was captured using a sliding time window approach, and FNC results from each window were assigned to four clusters representing FNC states, using a k-means clustering algorithm. HDgmc individuals spent significantly more time in State-1 (the state with the weakest FNC pattern) compared to HC. However, overall HC individuals showed more FNC dynamism than HDgmc. Significant associations between FNC states and genetic and clinical variables were also identified. In FNC State-4 (the one that most resembled static FNC), HDgmc exhibited significantly decreased connectivity between the putamen and medial prefrontal cortex compared to HC, and this was significantly associated with cognitive performance. In FNC State-1, disease burden in HDgmc participants was significantly associated with connectivity between the postcentral gyrus and posterior cingulate cortex, as well as between the inferior occipital gyrus and posterior parietal cortex.

Brain pathways of pain empathy activated by pained facial expressions: a meta-analysis of fMRI using the activation likelihood estimation method

OBJECTIVE:

The objective of this study is to summarize and analyze the brain signal patterns of empathy for pain caused by facial expressions of pain utilizing activation likelihood estimation, a meta-analysis method.

DATA SOURCES:

Studies concerning the brain mechanism were searched from the Science Citation Index, Science Direct, PubMed, DeepDyve, Cochrane Library, SinoMed, Wanfang, VIP, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, and other databases, such as SpringerLink, AMA, Science Online, Wiley Online, were collected. A time limitation of up to 13 December 2016 was applied to this study.

DATA SELECTION:

Studies presenting with all of the following criteria were considered for study inclusion: Use of functional magnetic resonance imaging, neutral and pained facial expression stimuli, involvement of adult healthy human participants over 18 years of age, whose empathy ability showed no difference from the healthy adult, a painless basic state, results presented in Talairach or Montreal Neurological Institute coordinates, multiple studies by the same team as long as they used different raw data.

OUTCOME MEASURES:

Activation likelihood estimation was used to calculate the combined main activated brain regions under the stimulation of pained facial expression.

RESULTS:

Eight studies were included, containing 178 subjects. Meta-analysis results suggested that the anterior cingulate cortex (BA32), anterior central gyrus (BA44), fusiform gyrus, and insula (BA13) were activated positively as major brain areas under the stimulation of pained facial expression.

CONCLUSION:

Our study shows that pained facial expression alone, without viewing of painful stimuli, activated brain regions related to pain empathy, further contributing to revealing the brain’s mechanisms of pain empathy.

Aggression modulates neural correlates of hostile intention attribution to laughter in children

The tendency to interpret nonverbal social signals as hostile in intention is associated with aggressive responding, poor social functioning and mental illness, and can already be observed in childhood. To investigate the neural correlates of such hostile attributions of social intention, we performed a functional magnetic imaging study in 10-18 year old children and adolescents. Fifty healthy participants rated videos of laughter, which they were told to imagine as being directed towards them, as friendly versus hostile in social intention. Hostile intention ratings were associated with neural response in the right temporal voice area (TVA). Moreover, self-reported trait physical aggression modulated this relationship in both the right TVA and bilateral lingual gyrus, with stronger associations between hostile intention ratings and neural activation in children with higher trait physical aggression scores. Functional connectivity results showed decreased connectivity between the right TVA and left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex with increasing trait physical aggression for making hostile social intention attributions. We conclude that children's social intention attributions are more strongly related to activation of early face and voice-processing regions with increasing trait physical aggression.

TMS over right OFA affects individuation of faces but not of exemplars of objects

In addition to its well-documented role in processing of faces, the occipital face area in the right hemisphere (rOFA) may also play a role in identifying specific individuals within a class of objects. Here we explored this issue by using fMRI-guided TMS. In a first experiment, participants had to judge whether two sequentially presented images of faces or objects represented exactly the same exemplar or two different exemplars of the same class, while receiving online TMS over either the rOFA, the right lateral occipital cortex (rLO) or the Vertex (control). We found that, relative to Vertex, stimulation of rOFA impaired individuation of faces only, with no effect on objects; in contrast, TMS over rLO reduced individuation of objects but not of faces. In a second control experiment participants judged whether a picture representing a fragment of a stimulus belonged or not to the subsequently presented image of a whole stimulus (part-whole matching task). Our results showed that rOFA stimulation selectively disrupted performance with faces, whereas performance with objects (but not with faces) was selectively affected by TMS over rLO. Overall, our findings suggest that rOFA does not contribute to discriminate between exemplars of non-face objects.

Stimulus Dependent Dynamic Reorganization of the Human Face Processing Network

Using the "face inversion effect", a hallmark of face perception, we examined network mechanisms supporting face representation by tracking functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) stimulus-dependent dynamic functional connectivity within and between brain networks associated with the processing of upright and inverted faces. We developed a novel approach adapting the general linear model (GLM) framework classically used for univariate fMRI analysis to capture stimulus-dependent fMRI dynamic connectivity of the face network. We show that under the face inversion manipulation, the face and non-face networks have complementary roles that are evident in their stimulus-dependent dynamic connectivity patterns as assessed by network decomposition into components or communities. Moreover, we show that connectivity patterns are associated with the behavioral face inversion effect. Thus, we establish "a network-level signature" of the face inversion effect and demonstrate how a simple physical transformation of the face stimulus induces a dramatic functional reorganization across related brain networks. Finally, we suggest that the dynamic GLM network analysis approach, developed here for the face network, provides a general framework for modeling the dynamics of blocked stimulus-dependent connectivity experimental designs and hence can be applied to a host of neuroimaging studies.

Psilocybin modulates functional connectivity of the amygdala during emotional face discrimination

Recent studies suggest that the antidepressant effects of the psychedelic 5-HT2A receptor agonist psilocybin are mediated through its modulatory properties on prefrontal and limbic brain regions including the amygdala. To further investigate the effects of psilocybin on emotion processing networks, we studied for the first-time psilocybin's acute effects on amygdala seed-to-voxel connectivity in an event-related face discrimination task in 18 healthy volunteers who received psilocybin and placebo in a double-blind balanced cross-over design. The amygdala has been implicated as a salience detector especially involved in the immediate response to emotional face content. We used beta-series amygdala seed-to-voxel connectivity during an emotional face discrimination task to elucidate the connectivity pattern of the amygdala over the entire brain. When we compared psilocybin to placebo, an increase in reaction time for all three categories of affective stimuli was found. Psilocybin decreased the connectivity between amygdala and the striatum during angry face discrimination. During happy face discrimination, the connectivity between the amygdala and the frontal pole was decreased. No effect was seen during discrimination of fearful faces. Thus, we show psilocybin's effect as a modulator of major connectivity hubs of the amygdala. Psilocybin decreases the connectivity between important nodes linked to emotion processing like the frontal pole or the striatum. Future studies are needed to clarify whether connectivity changes predict therapeutic effects in psychiatric patients.

Sensitivity to Faces with Typical and Atypical Part Configurations within Regions of the Face-processing Network: An fMRI Study

Perception of faces has been shown to engage a domain-specific set of brain regions, including the occipital face area (OFA) and the fusiform face area (FFA). It is commonly held that the OFA is responsible for the detection of faces in the environment, whereas the FFA is responsible for processing the identity of the face. However, an alternative model posits that the FFA is responsible for face detection and subsequently recruits the OFA to analyze the face parts in the service of identification. An essential prediction of the former model is that the OFA is not sensitive to the arrangement of internal face parts. In the current fMRI study, we test the sensitivity of the OFA and FFA to the configuration of face parts. Participants were shown faces in which the internal parts were presented in a typical configuration (two eyes above a nose above a mouth) or in an atypical configuration (the locations of individual parts were shuffled within the face outline). Perception of the atypical faces evoked a significantly larger response than typical faces in the OFA and in a wide swath of the surrounding posterior occipitotemporal cortices. Surprisingly, typical faces did not evoke a significantly larger response than atypical faces anywhere in the brain, including the FFA (although some subthreshold differences were observed). We propose that face processing in the FFA results in inhibitory sculpting of activation in the OFA, which accounts for this region's weaker response to typical than to atypical configurations.

Multivariate Pattern Classification of Facial Expressions Based on Large-Scale Functional Connectivity

It is an important question how human beings achieve efficient recognition of others’ facial expressions in cognitive neuroscience, and it has been identified that specific cortical regions show preferential activation to facial expressions in previous studies. However, the potential contributions of the connectivity patterns in the processing of facial expressions remained unclear. The present functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study explored whether facial expressions could be decoded from the functional connectivity (FC) patterns using multivariate pattern analysis combined with machine learning algorithms (fcMVPA). We employed a block design experiment and collected neural activities while participants viewed facial expressions of six basic emotions (anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, and surprise). Both static and dynamic expression stimuli were included in our study. A behavioral experiment after scanning confirmed the validity of the facial stimuli presented during the fMRI experiment with classification accuracies and emotional intensities. We obtained whole-brain FC patterns for each facial expression and found that both static and dynamic facial expressions could be successfully decoded from the FC patterns. Moreover, we identified the expression-discriminative networks for the static and dynamic facial expressions, which span beyond the conventional face-selective areas. Overall, these results reveal that large-scale FC patterns may also contain rich expression information to accurately decode facial expressions, suggesting a novel mechanism, which includes general interactions between distributed brain regions, and that contributes to the human facial expression recognition.

Genetic Variation in S100B Modulates Neural Processing of Visual Scenes in Han Chinese

Spatial navigation is a crucial ability for living. Previous animal studies have shown that the S100B gene is causally related to spatial navigation performance in mice. However, the genetic factors influencing human navigation and its neural substrates remain unclear. Here, we provided the first evidence that the S100B gene modulates neural processing of navigationally relevant scenes in humans. First, with a novel protocol, we demonstrated that the spatial pattern of S100B gene expression in postmortem brains was associated with brain activation pattern for spatial navigation in general, and for scene processing in particular. Further, in a large fMRI cohort of healthy adults of Han Chinese (N = 202), we found that S100B gene polymorphisms modulated scene selectivity in the retrosplenial cortex (RSC) and parahippocampal place area. Finally, the serum levels of S100B protein mediated the association between S100B gene polymorphism and scene selectivity in the RSC. Our study takes the first step toward understanding the neurogenetic mechanism of human spatial navigation and suggests a novel approach to discover candidate genes modulating cognitive functions.

Functional connectivity differences in autism during face and car recognition: underconnectivity and atypical age-related changes

Face recognition abilities improve between adolescence and adulthood over typical development (TD), but plateau in autism, leading to increasing face recognition deficits in autism later in life. Developmental differences between autism and TD may reflect changes between neural systems involved in the development of face encoding and recognition. Here, we focused on whole-brain connectivity with the fusiform face area (FFA), a well-established face-preferential brain region. Older children, adolescents, and adults with and without autism completed the Cambridge Face Memory Test, and a matched car memory test, during fMRI scanning. We then examined task-based functional connectivity between the FFA and the rest of the brain, comparing autism and TD groups during encoding and recognition of face and car stimuli. The autism group exhibited underconnectivity, relative to the TD group, between the FFA and frontal and primary visual cortices, independent of age. Underconnectivity with the medial and rostral lateral prefrontal cortex was face-specific during encoding and recognition, respectively. Conversely, underconnectivity with the L orbitofrontal cortex was evident for both face and car encoding. Atypical age-related changes in connectivity emerged between the FFA and the R temporoparietal junction, and R dorsal striatum for face stimuli only. Similar differences in age-related changes in autism emerged for FFA connectivity with the amygdala across both face and car recognition. Thus, underconnectivity and atypical development of functional connectivity may lead to a less optimal face-processing network in the context of increasing general and social cognitive deficits in autism.