scholarly journals The ventral stream receives spatial information from the dorsal stream during configural face processing

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentinos Zachariou ◽  
Nicole Mlynaryk ◽  
Marine Vernet ◽  
Leslie G. Ungerleider
Keyword(s):  
Face Perception ◽  
Face Processing ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Dorsal Stream ◽  
Visual Pathway ◽  
Ventral Stream ◽  
Ventral Visual Pathway ◽  
Visuospatial Processing ◽  
Configural Face Processing ◽  
Featural Face Processing

AbstractConfigural face processing is considered to be vital for face perception. If configural face processing requires an evaluation of spatial information, might this process involve interactions between ventral stream face-processing regions and dorsal stream visuospatial-processing regions? We explored this possibility using thetaburst stimulation (TBS) with fMRI in humans. Participants were shown two faces that differed in either the shape (featural differences) or the spatial configuration (configural differences) of their features. TBS applied on dorsal location-processing regions: 1) reduced fMRI activity within ventral stream face-processing regions during configural but not featural face processing; and 2) reduced functional connectivity between these face regions significantly more for configural than featural face processing. No changes occurred when TBS was delivered on the vertex control site for either face task. We conclude that ventral stream face-processing regions receive visuospatial information from dorsal stream location-processing regions during configural face processing.Significance statementFace perception is thought to be mediated exclusively by neural substrates within the ventral visual pathway. However, by using non-invasive brain stimulation (thetabust transcranial magnetic stimulation) in healthy human adults, we demonstrate that the face-processing regions of the ventral visual pathway receive information from visuospatial-processing regions of the dorsal visual pathway during configural face processing, a vital function in face perception. Our findings thus indicate that veridical face perception may depend on both the ventral and dorsal visual pathways.

scholarly journals The right FFA is functionally connected to the dorsal visual pathway during configural face processing.

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (12) ◽  
pp. 1233
Author(s):  
Valentinos Zachariou ◽  
Stephen Gotts ◽  
Zaid Safiullah ◽  
Leslie Ungerleider
Keyword(s):  
Face Processing ◽  
Visual Pathway ◽  
The Right ◽  
Configural Face Processing

scholarly journals Spatial Frequency Tuning Reveals Interactions between the Dorsal and Ventral Visual Systems

2013 ◽  
Vol 25 (6) ◽  
pp. 862-871 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bradford Z. Mahon ◽  
Nicholas Kumar ◽  
Jorge Almeida
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Frequency ◽  
Parietal Cortex ◽  
Frequency Tuning ◽  
Visual Pathway ◽  
Ventral Stream ◽  
Visual Input ◽  
Complex Object ◽  
Frequency Information ◽  
Spatial Frequencies ◽  
Ventral Visual Pathway

It is widely argued that the ability to recognize and identify manipulable objects depends on the retrieval and simulation of action-based information associated with using those objects. Evidence for that view comes from fMRI studies that have reported differential BOLD contrast in dorsal visual stream regions when participants view manipulable objects compared with a range of baseline categories. An alternative interpretation is that processes internal to the ventral visual pathway are sufficient to support the visual identification of manipulable objects and that the retrieval of object-associated use information is contingent on analysis of the visual input by the ventral stream. Here, we sought to distinguish these two perspectives by exploiting the fact that the dorsal stream is largely driven by magnocellular input, which is biased toward low spatial frequency visual information. Thus, any tool-selective responses in parietal cortex that are driven by high spatial frequencies would be indicative of inputs from the ventral visual pathway. Participants viewed images of tools and animals containing only low, or only high, spatial frequencies during fMRI. We find an internal parcellation of left parietal “tool-preferring” voxels: Inferior aspects of left parietal cortex are driven by high spatial frequency information and have privileged connectivity with ventral stream regions that show similar category preferences, whereas superior regions are driven by low spatial frequency information. Our findings suggest that the automatic activation of complex object-associated manipulation knowledge is contingent on analysis of the visual input by the ventral visual pathway.

Of Mannequins and Men

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason C. Deska ◽  
Steven M. Almaraz ◽  
Kurt Hugenberg
Keyword(s):  
Face Perception ◽  
Face Processing ◽  
Configural Processing ◽  
Perceptual Similarity ◽  
Face Inversion ◽  
Interactive Product ◽  
Spontaneous Activation ◽  
Human Faces ◽  
Configural Face Processing ◽  
Processing Mechanisms

Recent research has demonstrated that ascribing minds to humanlike stimuli is a product of both their perceptual similarity to human faces and whether they engaged configural face processing. We present the findings of two experiments in which we both manipulate the amount of humanlike features in faces (in a doll-to-human morph continuum) and manipulate perceivers’ ability to employ configural face processing (via face inversion) while measuring explicit ratings of mind ascription (Study 1) and the spontaneous activation of humanlike concepts (Study 2). In both studies, we find novel evidence that ascribing minds to entities is an interactive product of both having strong perceptual similarity to human faces and being processed using configural processing mechanisms typical of normal face perception. In short, ascribing mind to others is bounded jointly by the featural cues of the target and by processes employed by the perceiver.

scholarly journals Configural and Featural Face Processing Influences on Emotion Recognition in Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 287-291 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamsyn E. Van Rheenen ◽  
Nicole Joshua ◽  
David J Castle ◽  
Susan L. Rossell
Keyword(s):  
Bipolar Disorder ◽  
Emotion Recognition ◽  
Face Processing ◽  
Facial Emotion ◽  
Configural Processing ◽  
Processing Strategies ◽  
Featural Processing ◽  
Configural Face Processing ◽  
Featural Face Processing ◽  
Face Emotion Recognition

AbstractObjectives: Emotion recognition impairments have been demonstrated in schizophrenia (Sz), but are less consistent and lesser in magnitude in bipolar disorder (BD). This may be related to the extent to which different face processing strategies are engaged during emotion recognition in each of these disorders. We recently showed that Sz patients had impairments in the use of both featural and configural face processing strategies, whereas BD patients were impaired only in the use of the latter. Here we examine the influence that these impairments have on facial emotion recognition in these cohorts. Methods: Twenty-eight individuals with Sz, 28 individuals with BD, and 28 healthy controls completed a facial emotion labeling task with two conditions designed to separate the use of featural and configural face processing strategies; part-based and whole-face emotion recognition. Results: Sz patients performed worse than controls on both conditions, and worse than BD patients on the whole-face condition. BD patients performed worse than controls on the whole-face condition only. Conclusions: Configural processing deficits appear to influence the recognition of facial emotions in BD, whereas both configural and featural processing abnormalities impair emotion recognition in Sz. This may explain discrepancies in the profiles of emotion recognition between the disorders. (JINS, 2017, 23, 287–291)

scholarly journals Neural Substrates of Visuospatial Processing in Distinct Reference Frames: Evidence from Unilateral Spatial Neglect

2009 ◽  
Vol 21 (11) ◽  
pp. 2073-2084 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jared Medina ◽  
Vijay Kannan ◽  
Mikolaj A. Pawlak ◽  
Jonathan T. Kleinman ◽  
Melissa Newhart ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Processing ◽  
Reference Frames ◽  
Dorsal Stream ◽  
Neural Substrates ◽  
Ventral Stream ◽  
Spatial Neglect ◽  
Unilateral Spatial Neglect ◽  
Functional Reorganization ◽  
Visuospatial Processing ◽  
The Right

There is evidence for different levels of visuospatial processing with their own frames of reference: viewer-centered, stimulus-centered, and object-centered. The neural locus of these levels can be explored by examining lesion location in subjects with unilateral spatial neglect (USN) manifest in these reference frames. Most studies regarding the neural locus of USN have treated it as a homogenous syndrome, resulting in conflicting results. In order to further explore the neural locus of visuospatial processes differentiated by frame of reference, we presented a battery of tests to 171 subjects within 48 hr after right supratentorial ischemic stroke before possible structural and/or functional reorganization. The battery included MR perfusion weighted imaging (which shows hypoperfused regions that may be dysfunctional), diffusion weighted imaging (which reveals areas of infarct or dense ischemia shortly after stroke onset), and tests designed to disambiguate between various types of neglect. Results were consistent with a dorsal/ventral stream distinction in egocentric/allocentric processing. We provide evidence that portions of the dorsal stream of visual processing, including the right supramarginal gyrus, are involved in spatial encoding in egocentric coordinates, whereas parts of the ventral stream (including the posterior inferior temporal gyrus) are involved in allocentric encoding.

scholarly journals Temporal Frequency Tuning Reveals Interactions between the Dorsal and Ventral Visual Streams

2016 ◽  
Vol 28 (9) ◽  
pp. 1295-1302 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Kristensen ◽  
Frank E. Garcea ◽  
Bradford Z. Mahon ◽  
Jorge Almeida
Keyword(s):  
Parietal Cortex ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Frequency Tuning ◽  
Temporal Frequency ◽  
Visual Pathway ◽  
Object Identification ◽  
Ventral Stream ◽  
Inferior Parietal Lobule ◽  
Ventral Visual Pathway ◽  
Parietal Lobule

Visual processing of complex objects is supported by the ventral visual pathway in the service of object identification and by the dorsal visual pathway in the service of object-directed reaching and grasping. Here, we address how these two streams interact during tool processing, by exploiting the known asymmetry in projections of subcortical magnocellular and parvocellular inputs to the dorsal and ventral streams. The ventral visual pathway receives both parvocellular and magnocellular input, whereas the dorsal visual pathway receives largely magnocellular input. We used fMRI to measure tool preferences in parietal cortex when the images were presented at either high or low temporal frequencies, exploiting the fact that parvocellular channels project principally to the ventral but not dorsal visual pathway. We reason that regions of parietal cortex that exhibit tool preferences for stimuli presented at frequencies characteristic of the parvocellular pathway receive their inputs from the ventral stream. We found that the left inferior parietal lobule, in the vicinity of the supramarginal gyrus, exhibited tool preferences for images presented at low temporal frequencies, whereas superior and posterior parietal regions exhibited tool preferences for images present at high temporal frequencies. These data indicate that object identity, processed within the ventral stream, is communicated to the left inferior parietal lobule and may there combine with inputs from the dorsal visual pathway to allow for functionally appropriate object manipulation.

Configural Face Processing Develops more Slowly than Featural Face Processing

Perception ◽  
10.1068/p3339 ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 31 (5) ◽  
pp. 553-566 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine J Mondloch ◽  
Richard Le Grand ◽  
Daphne Maurer
Keyword(s):  
Face Processing ◽  
Inversion Effect ◽  
Configural Processing ◽  
External Contour ◽  
Slow Development ◽  
Single Face ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Adults And Children ◽  
Configural Face Processing ◽  
Featural Face Processing

Expertise in face processing takes many years to develop. To determine the contribution of different face-processing skills to this slow development, we altered a single face so as to create sets of faces designed to measure featural, configural, and contour processing. Within each set, faces differed only in the shape of the eyes and mouth (featural set), only in the spacing of the eyes and mouth (spacing set), or only in the shape of the external contour (contour set). We presented adults, and children aged 6, 8, and 10 years, with pairs of upright and inverted faces and instructed them to indicate whether the two faces were the same or different. Adults showed a larger inversion effect for the spacing set than for the featural and external contour sets, confirming that the spacing set taps configural processing. On the spacing set, all groups of children made more errors than adults. In contrast, on the external contour and featural sets, children at all ages were almost as accurate as adults, with no significant difference beginning at age 6 on the external contour set and beginning at age 10 on the featural set. Overall, the results indicate that adult expertise in configural processing is especially slow to develop.

Topography of Visual Features in the Human Ventral Visual Pathway

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shijia Fan ◽  
Xiaosha Wang ◽  
Xiaoying Wang ◽  
Tao Wei ◽  
Yanchao Bi
Keyword(s):  
Visual Pathway ◽  
Visual Features ◽  
Ventral Visual Pathway
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