Individuating Faces and Common Objects Produces Equal Responses in Putative Face Processing Areas in the Ventral Occipitotemporal Cortex
Controversy surrounds the proposal that specific human cortical regions in the ventral occipitotemporal cortex, commonly called the fusiform face area (FFA) and occipital face area (OFA), are specialized for face processing. Here, we present findings from a fMRI study of identity discrimination of f...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2010-10-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Human Neuroscience |
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| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnhum.2010.00181/full |
| _version_ | 1818280504938463232 |
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| author | Frank Haist Frank Haist Kang Lee Kang Lee Joan Stiles Joan Stiles |
| author_facet | Frank Haist Frank Haist Kang Lee Kang Lee Joan Stiles Joan Stiles |
| author_sort | Frank Haist |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Controversy surrounds the proposal that specific human cortical regions in the ventral occipitotemporal cortex, commonly called the fusiform face area (FFA) and occipital face area (OFA), are specialized for face processing. Here, we present findings from a fMRI study of identity discrimination of faces and objects that demonstrates the FFA and OFA are equally responsive to processing stimuli at the level of individuals (i.e., individuation), be they human faces or non-face objects. The FFA and OFA were defined via a passive viewing task as regions that produced greater activation to faces relative to non-face stimuli within the middle fusiform gyrus and inferior occipital gyrus. In the individuation task, participants judged whether sequentially presented images of faces, diverse objects, or wristwatches depicted the identical or a different exemplar. All three stimulus types produced equivalent BOLD activation within the FFA and OFA; that is, there was no face-specific or face-preferential processing. Critically, individuation processing did not eliminate an object superiority effect relative to faces within a region more closely linked to object processing in the lateral occipital complex (LOC), suggesting that individuation processes are reasonably specific to the FFA and OFA. Taken together, these findings challenge the prevailing view that the FFA and OFA are face-specific processing regions, demonstrating instead that they function to individuate -- i.e., identify specific individuals -- within a category. These findings have significant implications for understanding the function of a brain region widely believed to play an important role in social cognition. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-12T23:50:17Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-2276bcc9922c4eff96b4832410548d10 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1662-5161 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-12T23:50:17Z |
| publishDate | 2010-10-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Human Neuroscience |
| spelling | doaj.art-2276bcc9922c4eff96b4832410548d102022-12-22T00:06:43ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Human Neuroscience1662-51612010-10-01410.3389/fnhum.2010.001811511Individuating Faces and Common Objects Produces Equal Responses in Putative Face Processing Areas in the Ventral Occipitotemporal CortexFrank Haist0Frank Haist1Kang Lee2Kang Lee3Joan Stiles4Joan Stiles5Developmental Neuroimaging Laboratory,Institute for Nonlinear Science,University of California, San DiegoUniversity of California, San DiegoUniversity of TorontoUniversity of California, San DiegoUniversity of California, San DiegoUniversity of California, San DiegoControversy surrounds the proposal that specific human cortical regions in the ventral occipitotemporal cortex, commonly called the fusiform face area (FFA) and occipital face area (OFA), are specialized for face processing. Here, we present findings from a fMRI study of identity discrimination of faces and objects that demonstrates the FFA and OFA are equally responsive to processing stimuli at the level of individuals (i.e., individuation), be they human faces or non-face objects. The FFA and OFA were defined via a passive viewing task as regions that produced greater activation to faces relative to non-face stimuli within the middle fusiform gyrus and inferior occipital gyrus. In the individuation task, participants judged whether sequentially presented images of faces, diverse objects, or wristwatches depicted the identical or a different exemplar. All three stimulus types produced equivalent BOLD activation within the FFA and OFA; that is, there was no face-specific or face-preferential processing. Critically, individuation processing did not eliminate an object superiority effect relative to faces within a region more closely linked to object processing in the lateral occipital complex (LOC), suggesting that individuation processes are reasonably specific to the FFA and OFA. Taken together, these findings challenge the prevailing view that the FFA and OFA are face-specific processing regions, demonstrating instead that they function to individuate -- i.e., identify specific individuals -- within a category. These findings have significant implications for understanding the function of a brain region widely believed to play an important role in social cognition.http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnhum.2010.00181/fullFusiform face areafunctional MRIoccipital face areaface processingVisual Processing |
| spellingShingle | Frank Haist Frank Haist Kang Lee Kang Lee Joan Stiles Joan Stiles Individuating Faces and Common Objects Produces Equal Responses in Putative Face Processing Areas in the Ventral Occipitotemporal Cortex Frontiers in Human Neuroscience Fusiform face area functional MRI occipital face area face processing Visual Processing |
| title | Individuating Faces and Common Objects Produces Equal Responses in Putative Face Processing Areas in the Ventral Occipitotemporal Cortex |
| title_full | Individuating Faces and Common Objects Produces Equal Responses in Putative Face Processing Areas in the Ventral Occipitotemporal Cortex |
| title_fullStr | Individuating Faces and Common Objects Produces Equal Responses in Putative Face Processing Areas in the Ventral Occipitotemporal Cortex |
| title_full_unstemmed | Individuating Faces and Common Objects Produces Equal Responses in Putative Face Processing Areas in the Ventral Occipitotemporal Cortex |
| title_short | Individuating Faces and Common Objects Produces Equal Responses in Putative Face Processing Areas in the Ventral Occipitotemporal Cortex |
| title_sort | individuating faces and common objects produces equal responses in putative face processing areas in the ventral occipitotemporal cortex |
| topic | Fusiform face area functional MRI occipital face area face processing Visual Processing |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnhum.2010.00181/full |
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