The Fusiform Face Area: A Module in Human Extrastriate Cortex Specialized for Face Perception

Abstract

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we found an area in the fusiform gyrus in 12 of the 15 subjects tested that was significantly more active when the subjects viewed faces than when they viewed assorted common objects. This face activation was used to define a specific region of interest individually for each subject, within which several new tests of face specificity were run. In each of five subjects tested, the predefined candidate "face area" also responded significantly more strongly to passive viewing of (1) intact than scrambled two-tone faces, (2) full front-view face photos than front-view photos of houses, and (in a different set of five subjects) (3) three-quarter-view face photos (with hair concealed) than photos of human hands; it also responded more strongly during (4) a consecutive matching task performed on three-quarter-view faces versus hands. Our technique of running multiple tests applied to the same region defined functionally within individual subjects provides a solution to two common problems in functional imaging: (1) the requirement to correct for multiple statistical comparisons and (2) the inevitable ambiguity in the interpretation of any study in which only two or three conditions are compared. Our data allow us to reject alternative accounts of the function of the fusiform face area (area "FF") that appeal to visual attention, subordinate-level classification, or general processing of any animate or human forms, demonstrating that this region is selectively involved in the perception of faces.

Progesterone selectively increases amygdala reactivity in women

“…33,41 The amygdala projects back to all levels of the ventral visual stream, 42 and it influences activity in this brain region during face perception, 43 suggesting that progesterone decreases the back projections of the amygdala to the fusiform gyrus. However, because functional connectivity is a correlational method, this result may also reflect the influence of the fusiform gyrus on the amygdala by feed-forward projections.…”

“…Statistical tests were family-wise error (FWE) rate corrected for multiple comparisons across the whole brain or the region-ofinterest (ROI), using a small volume correction, 31 unless stated otherwise. The bilateral amygdala ROI was anatomically defined using the WFU Pickatlas, 32 and the bilateral face responsive regions in the fusiform gyri were defined as spheres with 14 mm radius around previously reported Talairach coordinates 33 that were transformed into MNI-space (http:// imaging.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk/imaging/MniTalairach). Furthermore, mean amygdala activity in both drug conditions was extracted from the bilateral amygdala ROI for additional correlation analyses.…”

Specialization within the ventral stream: the case for the visual word form area

“…This hypothesis was based both on neuroimaging studies of reading and on anatomo-clinical correlations in patients with pure alexia, an acquired deficit of reading that follows left occipitotemporal lesions (McCandliss et al, 2003). The VWFA hypothesis was framed in the broader context of recent studies of functional specialization within the human ventral visual stream, in which have been identified several areas specialized for other classes of visual stimuli such as faces, places, or body parts (Downing et al, 2001;Hasson et al, 2003;Haxby et al, 2001;Kanwisher et al, 1997).…”

The Human First Hypothesis: Identification of Conspecifics and Individuation of Objects in the Young Infant

“…Adult imagery studies suggest that certain kinds are segregated in their cortical representation. Dedicated cerebral tissue exists to process properties of at least three broad classes of objects: members of our species, animals, and other things (e.g., Kanwisher, McDermott, & Chun, 1997;Kanwisher, Stanley, & Harris, 1999;Kanwisher, Tong, & Nakayama, 1998;Martin, Wiggs, Ungerleider, & Haxby, 1996;Perani et al, 1995).…”