Perception of Face Parts and Face Configurations: An fMRI Study
Name
Liu-2010-Perception of Face Parts and Face Configurations An fMRI Study.pdf
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211.58 KB
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Author(s)
Liu, Jia
Harris, Alison
Kanwisher, Nancy
Date Issued
January 2010
Journal
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
Publisher
MIT Press
Citation
Liu, Jia, Alison Harris, and Nancy Kanwisher. “Perception of Face Parts and Face Configurations: An fMRI Study.” Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 22.1 (2010): 203-211. ©2009 Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
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.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
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Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn.2009.21203
