The Faces in Radiological Images: Fusiform Face Area Supports Radiological Expertise

Abstract

The fusiform face area (FFA) has often been used as an example of a brain module that was developed through evolution to serve a specific purpose-face processing. Many believe, however, that FFA is responsible for holistic processing associated with any kind of expertise. The expertise view has been tested with various stimuli, with mixed results. One of the main stumbling blocks in the FFA controversy has been the fact that the stimuli used have been similar to faces. Here, we circumvent the problem by using radiological images, X-rays, which bear no resemblance to faces. We demonstrate that FFA can distinguish between X-rays and other stimuli by employing multivariate pattern analysis. The sensitivity to X-rays was significantly better in experienced radiologists than that in medical students with limited radiological experience. For the radiologists, it was also possible to use the patterns of FFA activations obtained on faces to differentiate X-ray stimuli from other stimuli. The overlap in the FFA activation is not based on visual similarity of faces and X-rays but rather on the processes necessary for expertise with both kinds of stimulus. Our results support the expertise view that FFA's main function is related to holistic processing.

Neural Correlates of Visual Perceptual Expertise: Evidence From Cognitive Neuroscience Using Functional Neuroimaging

“…The findings suggest that the FFA of radiologists compared to medical students was more sensitive in differentiating upright or rotated X-ray films from the photographs showing rooms and tools. Bilalić et al (2016) conclude that the FFA activation was likely associated with the level of participant expertise effect. Also Harley and colleagues (2009) found a positive correlation between FFA activation and the visual expertise of radiologists.…”

“…Since the review of , two additional studies were published that addressed the neural basis of visual perceptual expertise in medicine (Bilalić et al, 2016;Ribas et al, 2013). We briefly review these studies here, together with an additional paper (Melo et al, 2011) that examined the neural correlates of radiologists' diagnoses.…”

“…This model defines task complexity on the basis of contextual demands that differ as a function of the number of desired outcomes, the multiplicity of paths to attain desired outcomes, and the coordinative complexity of informational cues in the task material while moving toward task completion. The reviewed studies include one viewing task, in which participants had to say if they had just seen the same image (Bilalić et al, 2016); three detection tasks, in which participants were asked to search for an abnormality or specific target within the image (Haller & Radue, 2005;Harley et al, 2009;Melo et al, 2011); and two decision tasks, in which the participants had to choose among a given set of options (Fiorio et al, 2010;Ribas et al, 2013). The study by Fioro et al (2010) is the only one using TMS and the study by Ribas et al (2013) the only one using EEG; thus, findings from these two studies cannot easily be compared to the other four studies using fMRI.…”

“…This explains perhaps the scarcity of cognitive-neuroscience studies in medical image diagnosis relative to its wide application in the visual perceptual expertise literature. If we compare the studies using medical images as experimental stimuli (reviewed in Table 1) with the wider visual perceptual expertise literature and their findings of FFA activation and the enhanced N170 component, it is evident that the expertise effect in FFA was partially confirmed with medical images (Bilalić et al, 2016;Harley et al, 2009). An increased N170 component has not yet been systematically addressed.…”

Audiovisual perception of natural speech is impaired in adult dyslexics: An ERP study

“…Because of the close proximity of FFA and VWFA, the early electrophysiological response to faces also manifests itself as a negativity with a latency around 170 ms (N170; Scott and Nelson, 2006). It has also been pointed out that FFA (and possibly VWFA) are to be considered to be areas related to perceptual expertise, which could extend to other stimulus categories such as cars, animals, phantasy-creatures (greebles), or even radiological images (Kung et al, 2007;Bilalic et al, 2011Bilalic et al, , 2014McGugin et al, 2014). One question that thus emerges from the comparison of the Kast et al (2010) results and the current findings is whether dyslexics have a generally compromised function of the inferior temporal cortex leading to problems with the early processing of visually present words on the one hand and to an impaired use of face information (and thus to decreased ability to audiovisual speech processing) on the other hand.…”