Contrast polarity and face recognition in the human fusiform gyrus.
Functional imaging has revealed face-responsive visual areas in the human fusiform gyrus, but their role in recognizing familiar individuals remains controversial. Face recognition is particularly impaired by reversing contrast polarity of the image, even though this preserves all edges and spatial frequencies. Here, combined influences of familiarity and priming on face processing were examined as contrast polarity was manipulated. Our fMRI results show that bilateral posterior areas in fusiform gyrus responded more strongly for faces with positive than with negative contrast polarity. An anterior, right-lateralized fusiform region is activated when a given face stimulus becomes recognizable as a well-known individual.
George
N
N
Wellcome Department of Cognitive Neurology, Institute of Neurology, 12 Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK.
Dolan
R J
RJ
Fink
G R
GR
Baylis
G C
GC
Russell
C
C
Driver
J
J
D000328:Adult; D015350:Contrast Sensitivity / Q000502:physiology*; D005145:Face; D005197:Famous Persons; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*