The neural processing of familiar and unfamiliar faces: A review and synopsis

Abstract

Familiar faces are represented with rich visual, semantic, and emotional codes that support nearly effortless perception and recognition of these faces. Unfamiliar faces pose a greater challenge to human perception and memory systems. The established behavioural disparities for familiar and unfamiliar faces undoubtedly stem from differences in the quality and nature of their underlying neural representations. In this review, our goal is to characterize what is known about the neural pathways that respond to familiar and unfamiliar faces using data from functional neuroimaging studies. We divide our presentation by type of familiarity (famous, personal, and visual familiarity) to consider the distinct neural underpinnings of each. We conclude with a description of a recent model of person information proposed by Gobbini and Haxby (2007) and a list of open questions and promising directions for future research.

Crossmodal priming of unfamiliar faces supports early interactions between voices and faces in person perception

“…The FRU is activated by any view of a face that is processed at earlier stages in the functional model as a structural code (Bruce & Young, 1986). Some studies have suggested differences in the neural representation of faces that are visually familiar only (e.g., images from magazines), versus those that are unknown, with greater activation to unfamiliar faces in early face regions of the cortex (e.g., Rossion, Schiltz, Robaye, Pirenne, & Crommelinck, 2001), although others reported no differences in face familiarity in face-selective regions (see Natu and O'Toole, 2011, for a review). Therefore, it is not sufficiently clear at what level repeated face images are processed during face perception, but it seems unlikely that repeated exposure to the same image of a (previously unfamiliar) face is sufficient to activate the PIN and more likely that activation occurs earlier in information processing such as the level of the FRU.…”

Neural microgenesis of personally familiar face recognition

“…These regions include the so-called "core face-processing system" (16), comprising regions in the middle section of the lateral fusiform gyrus ["fusiform face area" (FFA)], the lateral inferior occipital gyrus ["occipital face area" (OFA)], and the posterior superior temporal gyrus. However, these regions, which are identified with unfamiliar face stimuli, show only weak and/or inconsistent differences between familiar and unfamiliar faces (17). For example, within the right FFA, face familiarity has been associated with either increased or decreased neural activation (18,19).…”

Beyond emotions: A meta-analysis of neural response within face processing system in social anxiety

“…5 Face perception is a highly complex and sophisticated process underpinned by a distributed neural system that comprises several brain areas, including the fusiform gyrus, superior temporal sulcus (STS), insula, amygdala, and temporal poles. 6,7 Behavioral and neurobiological studies consistently suggest that such a system may be affected in SAD. [8][9][10] While a hyperreactivity in the amygdala has been a consistent finding across most studies on face perception in SAD (e.g.…”