scholarly journals Disentangling the representation of identity from head view along the human face processing pathway

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Swaroop Guntupalli ◽  
Kelsey G. Wheeler ◽  
M. Ida Gobbini
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Frontal Cortex ◽  
Face Perception ◽  
Face Processing ◽  
Visual Features ◽  
Fusiform Face Area ◽  
Invariant Representation ◽  
Face Area ◽  
Early Visual Cortex ◽  
Occipital Face Area

AbstractNeural models of a distributed system for face perception implicate a network of regions in the ventral visual stream for recognition of identity. Here, we report an fMRI neural decoding study in humans that shows that this pathway culminates in a right inferior frontal cortex face area (rIFFA) with a representation of individual identities that has been disentangled from variable visual features in different images of the same person. At earlier stages in the pathway, processing begins in early visual cortex and the occipital face area (OFA) with representations of head view that are invariant across identities, and proceeds to an intermediate level of representation in the fusiform face area (FFA) in which identity is emerging but still entangled with head view. Three-dimensional, view-invariant representation of identities in the rIFFA may be the critical link to the extended system for face perception, affording activation of person knowledge and emotional responses to familiar faces.Significance StatementIn this fMRI decoding experiment, we address how face images are processed in successive stages to disentangle the view-invariant representation of identity from variable visual features. Representations in early visual cortex and the occipital face area distinguish head views, invariant across identities. An intermediate level of representation in the fusiform face area distinguishes identities but still is entangled with head view. The face-processing pathway culminates in the right inferior frontal area with representation of view-independent identity. This paper clarifies the homologies between the human and macaque face processing systems. The findings show further, however, the importance of the inferior frontal cortex in decoding face identity, a result that has not yet been reported in the monkey literature.

scholarly journals Attentional Weighting in the Face Processing Network: A Magnetic Response Image-guided Magnetoencephalography Study Using Multiple Cyclic Entrainments

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (10) ◽  
pp. 1573-1588 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eelke de Vries ◽  
Daniel Baldauf
Keyword(s):  
Face Processing ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Magnetic Response ◽  
Fusiform Face Area ◽  
Facial Identity ◽  
Image Guided ◽  
Face Area ◽  
The Face ◽  
Occipital Face Area ◽  
Processing Network

We recorded magnetoencephalography using a neural entrainment paradigm with compound face stimuli that allowed for entraining the processing of various parts of a face (eyes, mouth) as well as changes in facial identity. Our magnetic response image-guided magnetoencephalography analyses revealed that different subnodes of the human face processing network were entrained differentially according to their functional specialization. Whereas the occipital face area was most responsive to the rate at which face parts (e.g., the mouth) changed, and face patches in the STS were mostly entrained by rhythmic changes in the eye region, the fusiform face area was the only subregion that was strongly entrained by the rhythmic changes in facial identity. Furthermore, top–down attention to the mouth, eyes, or identity of the face selectively modulated the neural processing in the respective area (i.e., occipital face area, STS, or fusiform face area), resembling behavioral cue validity effects observed in the participants' RT and detection rate data. Our results show the attentional weighting of the visual processing of different aspects and dimensions of a single face object, at various stages of the involved visual processing hierarchy.

scholarly journals Does the Occipital Face Area Contribute to Holistic Face Processing?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Gates Henderson
Keyword(s):  
Face Perception ◽  
Face Processing ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation ◽  
Holistic Processing ◽  
Face Area ◽  
Face Features ◽  
Occipital Face Area ◽  
Face Stimuli

<p>Face perception depends on a network of brain areas that selectively respond to faces over non-face stimuli. These face-selective areas are involved in different aspects of face perception, but what specific process is implemented in a particular region remains little understood. A candidate processisholistic face processing, namely the integration of visual information across the whole of an upright face. In this thesis, I report two experimentsthat examine whether the occipital face area (OFA), a face-selective region in the inferior occipital gyrus, performs holistic processing for categorising a stimulus as a face. Both experiments were conducted using online, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to disrupt activity in the brain while participants performed face perception tasks. Experiment 1 was a localiser in which participants completed two face identification tasks while receiving TMS at OFA or vertex. Participants’ accuracy decreased for one of the tasks as a result of OFA but not vertex stimulation. This result confirms that OFA could be localised and its activity disrupted. Experiment 2 was a test of holistic processing in which participants categorised ambiguous two-tone images as faces or non-faces while TMS was delivered to OFA or vertex. Participants’ accuracy and response times were unchanged as a result of either stimulation. This result suggests that the OFA is not engaged in holistic processing for categorising a stimulus as a face. Overall, the currentresults are more consistent with previous studies suggesting that OFA is involved in processing of local face features/details rather than the whole face.</p>

scholarly journals Does the Occipital Face Area Contribute to Holistic Face Processing?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Gates Henderson
Keyword(s):  
Face Perception ◽  
Face Processing ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation ◽  
Holistic Processing ◽  
Face Area ◽  
Face Features ◽  
Occipital Face Area ◽  
Face Stimuli

<p>Face perception depends on a network of brain areas that selectively respond to faces over non-face stimuli. These face-selective areas are involved in different aspects of face perception, but what specific process is implemented in a particular region remains little understood. A candidate processisholistic face processing, namely the integration of visual information across the whole of an upright face. In this thesis, I report two experimentsthat examine whether the occipital face area (OFA), a face-selective region in the inferior occipital gyrus, performs holistic processing for categorising a stimulus as a face. Both experiments were conducted using online, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to disrupt activity in the brain while participants performed face perception tasks. Experiment 1 was a localiser in which participants completed two face identification tasks while receiving TMS at OFA or vertex. Participants’ accuracy decreased for one of the tasks as a result of OFA but not vertex stimulation. This result confirms that OFA could be localised and its activity disrupted. Experiment 2 was a test of holistic processing in which participants categorised ambiguous two-tone images as faces or non-faces while TMS was delivered to OFA or vertex. Participants’ accuracy and response times were unchanged as a result of either stimulation. This result suggests that the OFA is not engaged in holistic processing for categorising a stimulus as a face. Overall, the currentresults are more consistent with previous studies suggesting that OFA is involved in processing of local face features/details rather than the whole face.</p>

scholarly journals Perception of Face Parts and Face Configurations: An fMRI Study

2010 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 203-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jia Liu ◽  
Alison Harris ◽  
Nancy Kanwisher
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Spatial Configuration ◽  
Superior Temporal Sulcus ◽  
Fusiform Face Area ◽  
First Order ◽  
Face Area ◽  
Fmri Study ◽  
The Face ◽  
Occipital Face Area ◽  
Patient Studies

fMRI studies have reported three regions in human ventral visual cortex that respond selectively to faces: the occipital face area (OFA), the fusiform face area (FFA), and a face-selective region in the superior temporal sulcus (fSTS). Here, we asked whether these areas respond to two first-order aspects of the face argued to be important for face perception, face parts (eyes, nose, and mouth), and the T-shaped spatial configuration of these parts. Specifically, we measured the magnitude of response in these areas to stimuli that (i) either contained real face parts, or did not, and (ii) either had veridical face configurations, or did not. The OFA and the fSTS were sensitive only to the presence of real face parts, not to the correct configuration of those parts, whereas the FFA was sensitive to both face parts and face configuration. Further, only in the FFA was the response to configuration and part information correlated across voxels, suggesting that the FFA contains a unified representation that includes both kinds of information. In combination with prior results from fMRI, TMS, MEG, and patient studies, our data illuminate the functional division of labor in the OFA, FFA, and fSTS.

scholarly journals Dissociable pathways for moving and static face perception begin in early visual cortex: evidence from an acquired prosopagnosic

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Magdalena Sliwinska ◽  
Caitlin Bearpark ◽  
Julia Corkhill ◽  
Aimee McPhillips ◽  
David Pitcher
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Visual Field ◽  
Face Processing ◽  
Right Visual Field ◽  
Functional Connections ◽  
Face Area ◽  
The Face ◽  
Early Visual Cortex ◽  
Static Images ◽  
Cortical Inputs

To investigate the functional connections between the core components of the face processing network we tested Herschel, an acquired prosopagnosic patient with a right ventral occipitotemporal lesion. In Experiment 1 Herschel, and control participants, were scanned with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while viewing videos of moving faces or static images taken from the videos. In Experiment 2 participants viewed videos of actors making facial expressions or static images taken from the videos. In Experiment 3, participants viewed videos of moving faces presented in the left or right visual field. Results showed the neural response in Herschel’s right occipital face area (OFA) was impaired for moving and static faces (Experiment 1), moving expressions (Experiment 2) and moving faces in the left visual field (Experiment 3). The response in Herschel’s right fusiform face area (FFA) to moving and static faces was impaired in Experiment 1 only, in Experiments 2 and 3 Herschel’s FFA response was not significantly different from controls. By contrast, the response in Herschel’s right posterior superior temporal sulcus (rpSTS) to moving and static faces and expressions (Experiments 1 and 2) and the visual field response (Experiment 3) was not significantly different from control participants. Our results demonstrate there are cortico-cortical inputs to the pSTS from early visual cortex that are independent of the OFA, a conclusion inconsistent with established models of face processing.

scholarly journals Effects of individuation and grouping on face representations in the visual cortex

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyehyeon Kim ◽  
Gayoung Kim ◽  
Sue-Hyun Lee
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Face Perception ◽  
Response Patterns ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Identity Recognition ◽  
Face Area ◽  
The Face ◽  
Early Visual Cortex ◽  
High Level

AbstractTop-down signals can influence our visual perception by providing guidance on information processing. Especially, top-down control between two basic frameworks, “Individuation” and “grouping”, is critical for information processing during face perception. Individuation of faces supports identity recognition while grouping subserves higher category level face perception such as race or gender. However, it still remains elusive how top-down dependent control between individuation and grouping affects cortical representations during face perception. Here we performed an fMRI experiment to investigate whether representations across early and high-level visual areas can be altered by top-down control between individuation and grouping process during face perception. Focusing on neural response patterns across the early visual cortex (EVC) and the face-selective area (the fusiform face area (FFA)), we found that the discriminability of individual faces from the response patterns was strong in the FFA but weak in the EVC during the individuation task whereas the EVC but not the FFA showed significant face discrimination during the grouping tasks. Thus, these findings suggest that the representation of face information across the early and high-level visual cortex is flexible depending on the top-down control of the perceptual framework between individuation and grouping.

The fusiform face area and occipital face area show sensitivity to spatial relations in faces

2009 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 721-733 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gillian Rhodes ◽  
Patricia T. Michie ◽  
Matthew E. Hughes ◽  
Graham Byatt
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Relations ◽  
Fusiform Face Area ◽  
Face Area ◽  
Occipital Face Area

scholarly journals Processing of the S-cone signals in the early visual cortex of primates

2013 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Youping Xiao
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Color Vision ◽  
Short Wavelength ◽  
Nonhuman Primates ◽  
Striate Cortex ◽  
Color Perception ◽  
Visual Pathway ◽  
Visual Features ◽  
Area V2 ◽  
Early Visual Cortex

AbstractThe short-wavelength-sensitive (S) cones play an important role in color vision of primates, and may also contribute to the coding of other visual features, such as luminance and motion. The color signals carried by the S cones and other cone types are largely separated in the subcortical visual pathway. Studies on nonhuman primates or humans have suggested that these signals are combined in the striate cortex (V1) following a substantial amplification of the S-cone signals in the same area. In addition to reviewing these studies, this review describes the circuitry in V1 that may underlie the processing of the S-cone signals and the dynamics of this processing. It also relates the interaction between various cone signals in V1 to the results of some psychophysical and physiological studies on color perception, which leads to a discussion of a previous model, in which color perception is produced by a multistage processing of the cone signals. Finally, I discuss the processing of the S-cone signals in the extrastriate area V2.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document