Browse
Submit Data
Databases
API
Help

Dataset Information

0 Views

0 Connections

0 Citations

0 Reanalyses

0 Downloads

Omics score: 0

Whole-agent selectivity within the macaque face-processing system.

ABSTRACT: The primate brain contains a set of face-selective areas, which are thought to extract the rich social information that faces provide, such as emotional state and personal identity. The nature of this information raises a fundamental question about these face-selective areas: Do they respond to a face purely because of its visual attributes, or because the face embodies a larger social agent? Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to determine whether the macaque face patch system exhibits a whole-agent response above and beyond its responses to individually presented faces and bodies. We found a systematic development of whole-agent preference through the face patches, from subadditive integration of face and body responses in posterior face patches to superadditive integration in anterior face patches. Superadditivity was not observed for faces atop nonbody objects, implying categorical specificity of face-body interaction. Furthermore, superadditivity was robust to visual degradation of facial detail, suggesting whole-agent selectivity does not require prior face recognition. In contrast, even the body patches immediately adjacent to anterior face areas did not exhibit superadditivity. This asymmetry between face- and body-processing systems may explain why observers attribute bodies' social signals to faces, and not vice versa. The development of whole-agent selectivity from posterior to anterior face patches, in concert with the recently described development of natural motion selectivity from ventral to dorsal face patches, identifies a single face patch, AF (anterior fundus), as a likely link between the analysis of facial shape and semantic inferences about other agents.

SUBMITTER: Fisher C

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4664356 | biostudies-other | 2015 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

ACCESS DATA

Json Xml

Similar Datasets

Functional compartmentalization and viewpoint generalization within the macaque face-processing system.

Project description:Primates can recognize faces across a range of viewing conditions. Representations of individual identity should thus exist that are invariant to accidental image transformations like view direction. We targeted the recently discovered face-processing network of the macaque monkey that consists of six interconnected face-selective regions and recorded from the two middle patches (ML, middle lateral, and MF, middle fundus) and two anterior patches (AL, anterior lateral, and AM, anterior medial). We found that the anatomical position of a face patch was associated with a unique functional identity: Face patches differed qualitatively in how they represented identity across head orientations. Neurons in ML and MF were view-specific; neurons in AL were tuned to identity mirror-symmetrically across views, thus achieving partial view invariance; and neurons in AM, the most anterior face patch, achieved almost full view invariance.

| S-EPMC3181095 | biostudies-literature

Contrasting specializations for facial motion within the macaque face-processing system.

Project description:Facial motion transmits rich and ethologically vital information, but how the brain interprets this complex signal is poorly understood. Facial form is analyzed by anatomically distinct face patches in the macaque brain, and facial motion activates these patches and surrounding areas. Yet, it is not known whether facial motion is processed by its own distinct and specialized neural machinery, and if so, what that machinery's organization might be. To address these questions, we used fMRI to monitor the brain activity of macaque monkeys while they viewed low- and high-level motion and form stimuli. We found that, beyond classical motion areas and the known face patch system, moving faces recruited a heretofore unrecognized face patch. Although all face patches displayed distinctive selectivity for face motion over object motion, only two face patches preferred naturally moving faces, while three others preferred randomized, rapidly varying sequences of facial form. This functional divide was anatomically specific, segregating dorsal from ventral face patches, thereby revealing a new organizational principle of the macaque face-processing system.

| S-EPMC4302012 | biostudies-literature

Development of the macaque face-patch system.

Project description:Face recognition is highly proficient in humans and other social primates; it emerges in infancy, but the development of the neural mechanisms supporting this behaviour is largely unknown. We use blood-volume functional MRI to monitor longitudinally the responsiveness to faces, scrambled faces, and objects in macaque inferotemporal cortex (IT) from 1 month to 2 years of age. During this time selective responsiveness to monkey faces emerges. Some functional organization is present at 1 month; face-selective patches emerge over the first year of development, and are remarkably stable once they emerge. Face selectivity is refined by a decreasing responsiveness to non-face stimuli.

| S-EPMC5381009 | biostudies-literature

The Core Brain Region for Face Processing in Schizophrenia Lacks Face Selectivity.

Project description:BackgroundFace perception impairment in schizophrenia has long been recognized. However, brain mechanisms underlying this socially important perceptual deficit are not well understood. Previous magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies have shown that patients have altered structure in brain regions responsible for processing face information, but functional properties of these brain regions are not clearly determined. A key functional property of the face-processing system--face selectivity--has yet to be evaluated in schizophrenia.MethodsWe used functional MRI (fMRI) to examine face selectivity of 3 core face-processing regions--fusiform face area (FFA), occipital face area (OFA), and superior temporal sulcus (STS)--in schizophrenia patients (n = 24) and healthy controls (n = 23). To disassociate face-specific processing from general perceptual processing, we compared cortical activations during performance of perceptually equated face and tree detection tasks.ResultsActivation levels of the 3 putative face-processing regions during face detection did not differ between patients and controls, being similar for FFA and OFA and absent for STS. However, face selectivity, indexed by the difference in cortical activation between face and tree detection, was significantly reduced in patients for FFA, especially for low-contrast stimuli. FFA activation and perceptual performance during face detection were associated in patients.ConclusionsThese results show a lack of face-specific processing in the schizophrenic brain region presumably subserving face perception. This finding suggests boosting visual salience of face images as a potential therapeutic venue for improving face perception in this psychiatric disorder.

| S-EPMC4838078 | biostudies-literature

Evaluating the organizational structure and specificity of network topology within the face processing system.

Project description:There is increasing appreciation that network-level interactions among regions produce components of face processing previously ascribed to individual regions. Our goals were to use an exhaustive data-driven approach to derive and quantify the topology of directed functional connections within a priori defined nodes of the face processing network and evaluate whether the topology is category-specific. Young adults were scanned with fMRI as they viewed movies of faces, objects, and scenes. We employed GIMME to model effective connectivity among core and extended face processing regions, which allowed us to evaluate all possible directional connections, under each viewing condition (face, object, place). During face processing, we observed directional connections from the right posterior superior temporal sulcus to both the right occipital face area and right fusiform face area (FFA), which does not reflect the topology reported in prior studies. We observed connectivity between core and extended regions during face processing, but this limited to a feed-forward connection from the FFA to the amygdala. Finally, the topology of connections was unique to face processing. These findings suggest that the pattern of directed functional connections within the face processing network, particularly in the right core regions, may not be as hierarchical and feed-forward as described previously. Our findings support the notion that topologies of network connections are specialized, emergent, and dynamically responsive to task demands.

| S-EPMC6865463 | biostudies-literature

High-Level Prediction Signals in a Low-Level Area of the Macaque Face-Processing Hierarchy.

Project description:Theories like predictive coding propose that lower-order brain areas compare their inputs to predictions derived from higher-order representations and signal their deviation as a prediction error. Here, we investigate whether the macaque face-processing system, a three-level hierarchy in the ventral stream, employs such a coding strategy. We show that after statistical learning of specific face sequences, the lower-level face area ML computes the deviation of actual from predicted stimuli. But these signals do not reflect the tuning characteristic of ML. Rather, they exhibit identity specificity and view invariance, the tuning properties of higher-level face areas AL and AM. Thus, learning appears to endow lower-level areas with the capability to test predictions at a higher level of abstraction than what is afforded by the feedforward sweep. These results provide evidence for computational architectures like predictive coding and suggest a new quality of functional organization of information-processing hierarchies beyond pure feedforward schemes.

| S-EPMC5757317 | biostudies-literature

Functional selectivity for face processing in the temporal voice area of early deaf individuals.

Project description:Brain systems supporting face and voice processing both contribute to the extraction of important information for social interaction (e.g., person identity). How does the brain reorganize when one of these channels is absent? Here, we explore this question by combining behavioral and multimodal neuroimaging measures (magneto-encephalography and functional imaging) in a group of early deaf humans. We show enhanced selective neural response for faces and for individual face coding in a specific region of the auditory cortex that is typically specialized for voice perception in hearing individuals. In this region, selectivity to face signals emerges early in the visual processing hierarchy, shortly after typical face-selective responses in the ventral visual pathway. Functional and effective connectivity analyses suggest reorganization in long-range connections from early visual areas to the face-selective temporal area in individuals with early and profound deafness. Altogether, these observations demonstrate that regions that typically specialize for voice processing in the hearing brain preferentially reorganize for face processing in born-deaf people. Our results support the idea that cross-modal plasticity in the case of early sensory deprivation relates to the original functional specialization of the reorganized brain regions.

| S-EPMC5547585 | biostudies-literature

Face-identity change activation outside the face system: "release from adaptation" may not always indicate neuronal selectivity.

Project description:Face recognition is a complex cognitive process that requires distinguishable neuronal representations of individual faces. Previous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies using the "fMRI-adaptation" technique have suggested the existence of face-identity representations in face-selective regions, including the fusiform face area (FFA). Here, we present face-identity adaptation findings that are not well explained in terms of face-identity representations. We performed blood-oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) fMRI measurements, while participants viewed familiar faces that were shown repeatedly throughout the experiment. We found decreased activation for repeated faces in face-selective regions, as expected based on previous studies. However, we found similar effects in regions that are not face-selective, including the parahippocampal place area (PPA) and early visual cortex (EVC). These effects were present for exact-image (same view and lighting) as well as different-image (different view and/or lighting) repetition, but more widespread for exact-image repetition. Given the known functional properties of PPA and EVC, it appears unlikely that they contain domain-specific face-identity representations. Alternative interpretations include general attentional effects and carryover of activation from connected regions. These results remind us that fMRI stimulus-change effects can have a range of causes and do not provide conclusive evidence for a neuronal representation of the changed stimulus property.

| S-EPMC2950811 | biostudies-other

Convolutional neural networks explain tuning properties of anterior, but not middle, face-processing areas in macaque inferotemporal cortex.

Project description:Recent computational studies have emphasized layer-wise quantitative similarity between convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and the primate visual ventral stream. However, whether such similarity holds for the face-selective areas, a subsystem of the higher visual cortex, is not clear. Here, we extensively investigate whether CNNs exhibit tuning properties as previously observed in different macaque face areas. While simulating four past experiments on a variety of CNN models, we sought for the model layer that quantitatively matches the multiple tuning properties of each face area. Our results show that higher model layers explain reasonably well the properties of anterior areas, while no layer simultaneously explains the properties of middle areas, consistently across the model variation. Thus, some similarity may exist between CNNs and the primate face-processing system in the near-goal representation, but much less clearly in the intermediate stages, thus requiring alternative modeling such as non-layer-wise correspondence or different computational principles.

| S-EPMC7210114 | biostudies-literature

A parameterized digital 3D model of the Rhesus macaque face for investigating the visual processing of social cues.

Project description:BackgroundRhesus macaques are the most popular model species for studying the neural basis of visual face processing and social interaction using intracranial methods. However, the challenge of creating realistic, dynamic, and parametric macaque face stimuli has limited the experimental control and ethological validity of existing approaches.New methodWe performed statistical analyses of in vivo computed tomography data to generate an anatomically accurate, three-dimensional representation of Rhesus macaque cranio-facial morphology. The surface structures were further edited, rigged and textured by a professional digital artist with careful reference to photographs of macaque facial expression, colouration and pelage.ResultsThe model offers precise, continuous, parametric control of craniofacial shape, emotional expression, head orientation, eye gaze direction, and many other parameters that can be adjusted to render either static or dynamic high-resolution faces. Example single-unit responses to such stimuli in macaque inferotemporal cortex demonstrate the value of parametric control over facial appearance and behaviours.Comparison with existing method(s)The generation of such a high-dimensionality and systematically controlled stimulus set of conspecific faces, with accurate craniofacial modelling and professional finalization of facial details, is currently not achievable using existing methods.ConclusionsThe results herald a new set of possibilities in adaptive sampling of a high-dimensional and socially meaningful feature space, thus opening the door to systematic testing of hypotheses about the abundant neural specialization for faces found in the primate.

| S-EPMC7446874 | biostudies-literature

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

OmicsDI is an Elixir interoperability service. Learn more ›

Tweets

OmicsDI Databases

PRIDE
PeptideAtlas
MassIVE
JPOST Repository
Physiome Model Repository

EGA
EVA
ENA
LINCS
PAXDB
Cell Collective

MetaboLights
Metabolomics Workbench
MetabolomeExpress
GNPS
BioModels
FAIRDOMHub

ArrayExpress
dbGaP
ExpressionAtlas
GEO
NODE

Information

Databases
Help
API
Contact us
Code on GitHub
Terms of use
Submit Data