A Distributed Model of Face and Body Integration

Separated face- and body-responsive brain networks have been identified that show strong responses when observers view faces and bodies. It has been proposed that face and body processing may be initially separated in the lateral occipitotemporal cortex and then combined into a whole person represen...

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Main Author: Celia Foster
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SAGE Publishing 2022-08-01
Series:Neuroscience Insights
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1177/26331055221119221
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author Celia Foster
author_facet Celia Foster
author_sort Celia Foster
collection DOAJ
description Separated face- and body-responsive brain networks have been identified that show strong responses when observers view faces and bodies. It has been proposed that face and body processing may be initially separated in the lateral occipitotemporal cortex and then combined into a whole person representation in the anterior temporal cortex, or elsewhere in the brain. However, in contrast to this proposal, our recent study identified a common coding of face and body orientation (ie, facing direction) in the lateral occipitotemporal cortex, demonstrating an integration of face and body information at an early stage of face and body processing. These results, in combination with findings that show integration of face and body identity in the lateral occipitotemporal, parahippocampal and superior parietal cortex, and face and body emotional expression in the posterior superior temporal sulcus and medial prefrontal cortex, suggest that face and body integration may be more distributed than previously considered. I propose a new model of face and body integration, where areas at the intersection of face- and body-responsive regions play a role in integrating specific properties of faces and bodies, and distributed regions across the brain contribute to high-level, abstract integration of shared face and body properties.
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spelling doaj.art-1f0223e35a5e485fbda93902b294d9d42023-04-04T15:03:25ZengSAGE PublishingNeuroscience Insights2633-10552022-08-011710.1177/26331055221119221A Distributed Model of Face and Body IntegrationCelia Foster0Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, GermanySeparated face- and body-responsive brain networks have been identified that show strong responses when observers view faces and bodies. It has been proposed that face and body processing may be initially separated in the lateral occipitotemporal cortex and then combined into a whole person representation in the anterior temporal cortex, or elsewhere in the brain. However, in contrast to this proposal, our recent study identified a common coding of face and body orientation (ie, facing direction) in the lateral occipitotemporal cortex, demonstrating an integration of face and body information at an early stage of face and body processing. These results, in combination with findings that show integration of face and body identity in the lateral occipitotemporal, parahippocampal and superior parietal cortex, and face and body emotional expression in the posterior superior temporal sulcus and medial prefrontal cortex, suggest that face and body integration may be more distributed than previously considered. I propose a new model of face and body integration, where areas at the intersection of face- and body-responsive regions play a role in integrating specific properties of faces and bodies, and distributed regions across the brain contribute to high-level, abstract integration of shared face and body properties.https://doi.org/10.1177/26331055221119221
spellingShingle Celia Foster
A Distributed Model of Face and Body Integration
Neuroscience Insights
title A Distributed Model of Face and Body Integration
title_full A Distributed Model of Face and Body Integration
title_fullStr A Distributed Model of Face and Body Integration
title_full_unstemmed A Distributed Model of Face and Body Integration
title_short A Distributed Model of Face and Body Integration
title_sort distributed model of face and body integration
url https://doi.org/10.1177/26331055221119221
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