Positive intergroup contact modulates fusiform gyrus activity to black and white faces

Abstract

In this study, we investigated the effect of intergroup contact on processing of own-and other-race faces using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). Previous studies have shown a neural ownrace effect with greater BOLD response to own race compared to other race faces. In our study, white participants completed a social-categorization task and an individuation task while viewing the faces of both black and white strangers after having answered questions about their previous experiences with black people. We found that positive contact modulated BOLD activity in the right fusiform gyrus (rFG) and left inferior occipital gyrus (lioc), regions associated with face processing. Within these regions, higher positive contact was associated with higher activity when processing black, compared to white faces during the social categorisation task. We also found that in both regions a greater amount of individuating experience with black people was associated with greater activation for black vs. white faces in the individuation task. Quantity of contact, implicit racial bias and negatively valenced contact showed no effects. Our findings suggest that positive contact and individuating experience directly modulate processing of out-group faces in the visual cortex, and illustrate that contact quality rather than mere familiarity is an important factor in reducing the own race face effect.

Dialogue intervention for youth amidst intractable conflict attenuates neural prejudice response and promotes adults’ peacemaking

“…Hein and colleagues studied under controlled lab conditions the effects of negative reinforcement learning on intergroup empathy in the Swiss immigrant context and found that during the experimental session, a positive learning experience towards outgroup members resulted in enhanced neural empathic response towards representations of outgroup. Farmer and colleagues found that positive intergroup contact did not link with implicit bias on the Implicit Association Test (IAT), but was reflected by reduced neural intergroup bias; however, these results were correlational ( 21 ). Finally, Valencia and colleagues utilized an intervention training in the context of ex-combatants reintegration and found that the intervention triggered covert neurofunctional reorganization even when in the absence of overt behavioral improvements ( 22 ).…”

Multi-modal Mapping of the Face Selective Ventral Temporal Cortex–A Group Study With Clinical Implications for ECS, ECoG, and fMRI

“…At the end of the fMRI mapping, 40 volumes per condition (face and object) were available for statistical analysis in SPM12 (Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, United Kingdom). Parameters were mainly selected based on the suggested analysis pipeline for the high-level visual cortex (Weiner and Grill-Spector, 2013) and previously used settings to obtain faces selective cortex regions on the ventral temporal cortex (Winston et al, 2004;Liu et al, 2008;Jonas et al, 2015;Schwarz et al, 2019;Farmer et al, 2020).…”

The effects of ethnoracial-related stressors during pregnancy on the developing offspring brain

“…Functional neuroimaging research has identified the amygdala as being involved in processing in-group and out-membership, as well as race (26,38,39). Our finding that greater maternal assimilation is associated with weaker amygdala-fusiform connectivity in offspring is intriguing as previous literature demonstrates an association between the fusiform and race-based processing in adults (40)(41)(42)(43)(44). Amygdala-fusiform connectivity also plays a role in ethnoracial processing of faces (39,41,45).…”

“…At three months old, infants are able to start discriminating between own race and other race faces as the “other-race effect” develops(46). As in adults(42), familiarity causes infants to prefer faces of their own race to faces of other races(47), but with greater exposure to other race faces, this preference is negated(48). Further, studies on young infants have shown that the postnatal environmental exposures to people of different ethnoracial groups and cultures affects infants perception of race(49).…”