Dissociation between overt and unconscious face processing in fusiform face area

The precise role of the fusiform face area (FFA) in face processing remains controversial. In this study, we investigated to what degree FFA activation reflects additional functions beyond face perception. Seven volunteers underwent rapid event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging while they performed a face-encoding and a face-recognition task. During face encoding, activity in the FFA for individual faces predicted whether the individual face was subsequently remembered or forgotten. However, during face recognition, no difference in FFA activity between consciously remembered and forgotten faces was observed, but the activity of FFA differentiated if a face had been seen previously or not. This demonstrated a dissociation between overt recognition and unconscious discrimination of stimuli, suggesting that physiological processes of face recognition can take place, even if not all of its operations are made available to consciousness.

[1]  M. Tarr,et al.  Orientation Priming of Novel Shapes in the Context of Viewpoint-Dependent Recognition , 1997, Perception.

[2]  C J Price,et al.  The neural systems sustaining face and proper-name processing. , 1998, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[3]  R. Buckner,et al.  The cognitive neuroscience og remembering , 2001, Nature Reviews Neuroscience.

[4]  T. Shallice,et al.  Face repetition effects in implicit and explicit memory tests as measured by fMRI. , 2002, Cerebral cortex.

[5]  B. Weber,et al.  Human hippocampus establishes associations in memory , 1997, Hippocampus.

[6]  I. Gauthier,et al.  Expertise for cars and birds recruits brain areas involved in face recognition , 2000, Nature Neuroscience.

[7]  A. Young,et al.  Understanding face recognition. , 1986, British journal of psychology.

[8]  Terri Gullickson,et al.  Encyclopedia of human behavior , 1995 .

[9]  D. Schacter,et al.  When encoding yields remembering: insights from event-related neuroimaging. , 1999, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences.

[10]  Joan Y. Chiao,et al.  Differential responses in the fusiform region to same-race and other-race faces , 2001, Nature Neuroscience.

[11]  C. Elger,et al.  Human memory formation is accompanied by rhinal–hippocampal coupling and decoupling , 2001, Nature Neuroscience.

[12]  J. C. Meadows.  The anatomical basis of prosopagnosia , 1974, Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry.

[13]  M. Tarr,et al.  Unraveling mechanisms for expert object recognition: bridging brain activity and behavior. , 2002, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[14]  Witold Pedrycz,et al.  Face recognition: A study in information fusion using fuzzy integral , 2005, Pattern Recognit. Lett..

[15]  Mark S. Seidenberg,et al.  Neural Systems Underlying the Recognition of Familiar and Newly Learned Faces , 2000, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[16]  M. Corbetta,et al.  Separating Processes within a Trial in Event-Related Functional MRI II. Analysis , 2001, NeuroImage.

[17]  R. Buckner,et al.  Neural Correlates of Episodic Retrieval Success , 2000, NeuroImage.

[18]  A. Damasio,et al.  Knowledge without awareness: an autonomic index of facial recognition by prosopagnosics. , 1985, Science.

[19]  N. Kanwisher,et al.  The Fusiform Face Area: A Module in Human Extrastriate Cortex Specialized for Face Perception , 1997, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[20]  T. Allison,et al.  Human extrastriate visual cortex and the perception of faces, words, numbers, and colors. , 1994, Cerebral cortex.

[21]  M. Tarr,et al.  FFA: a flexible fusiform area for subordinate-level visual processing automatized by expertise , 2000, Nature Neuroscience.

[22]  M. Corbetta,et al.  Separating Processes within a Trial in Event-Related Functional MRI I. The Method , 2001, NeuroImage.

[23]  R. Dolan,et al.  Contrast polarity and face recognition in the human fusiform gyrus , 1999, Nature Neuroscience.

[24]  A M Dale,et al.  Optimal experimental design for event‐related fMRI , 1999, Human brain mapping.

[25]  E K Warrington,et al.  Prosopagnosia: A Face-Specific Disorder , 1993, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. A, Human experimental psychology.

[26]  J. Sergent,et al.  Functional neuroanatomy of face and object processing. A positron emission tomography study. , 1992, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[27]  A. Ishai,et al.  Distributed and Overlapping Representations of Faces and Objects in Ventral Temporal Cortex , 2001, Science.

[28]  A. J. Mistlin,et al.  Neurones responsive to faces in the temporal cortex: studies of functional organization, sensitivity to identity and relation to perception. , 1984, Human neurobiology.

[29]  J. Talairach,et al.  Co-Planar Stereotaxic Atlas of the Human Brain: 3-Dimensional Proportional System: An Approach to Cerebral Imaging , 1988 .

[30]  Elizabeth A. Phelps,et al.  Faces and races in the brain , 2001, Nature Neuroscience.

[31]  M. Tarr,et al.  The Fusiform Face Area is Part of a Network that Processes Faces at the Individual Level , 2000, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[32]  J. Desmond,et al.  Making memories: brain activity that predicts how well visual experience will be remembered. , 1998, Science.

[33]  V. Bruce,et al.  What's Distinctive about a Distinctive Face? , 1994, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. A, Human experimental psychology.

[34]  Raymond Bruyer,et al.  Covert face recognition in prosopagnosia: A review , 1991, Brain and Cognition.

[35]  T. Schormann,et al.  Functional delineation of the human occipito-temporal areas related to face and scene processing. A PET study. , 2000, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[36]  L. Squire,et al.  Simple and associative recognition memory in the hippocampal region. , 2001, Learning & memory.

[37]  R. S. Hinks,et al.  Time course EPI of human brain function during task activation , 1992, Magnetic resonance in medicine.

[38]  J. Haxby,et al.  fMRI study of face perception and memory using random stimulus sequences. , 1998, Journal of neurophysiology.

[39]  N. Kanwisher,et al.  Covert visual attention modulates face-specific activity in the human fusiform gyrus: fMRI study. , 1998, Journal of neurophysiology.

[40]  C. B. Cave,et al.  Evidence for two types of spatial representations: hemispheric specialization for categorical and coordinate relations. , 1989, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[41]  M. Tarr,et al.  Activation of the middle fusiform 'face area' increases with expertise in recognizing novel objects , 1999, Nature Neuroscience.

[42]  A. O'Toole,et al.  Structural aspects of face recognition and the other-race effect , 1994, Memory & cognition.

[43]  B. Mazoyer,et al.  Neural Correlates of Woman Face Processing by 2-Month-Old Infants , 2002, NeuroImage.

[44]  J K ADAMS,et al.  Laboratory studies of behavior without awareness. , 1957, Psychological bulletin.

[45]  Kohki Yoshikawa,et al.  Neural substrates for the recognition of newly learned faces: a functional MRI study , 2000, Neuropsychologia.

[46]  V. Bruce,et al.  Face processing: Human perception and principal components analysis , 1996, Memory & cognition.

[47]  J. Pardo,et al.  The Role of the Fusiform Gyrus in Successful Encoding of Face Stimuli , 1999, NeuroImage.

[48]  G. V. Van Hoesen,et al.  Prosopagnosia , 1982, Neurology.

[49]  Cheryl L Grady,et al.  The effect of encoding strategy on the neural correlates of memory for faces , 2002, Neuropsychologia.

[50]  J. Haxby,et al.  Distinct representations of eye gaze and identity in the distributed human neural system for face perception , 2000, Nature Neuroscience.

[51]  M. D’Esposito,et al.  The Variability of Human, BOLD Hemodynamic Responses , 1998, NeuroImage.

[52]  A. Dale,et al.  Selective averaging of rapidly presented individual trials using fMRI , 1997, Human brain mapping.