title: Facial recognition reactivates the primary visual cortex: an functional magnetic resonance imaging study in humans.
abstract: In order to investigate how the brain represents sensory-specific information during memory retrieval, we examined functional magnetic resonance imaging's during a face-recognition task. When compared with activation associated with viewing of novel faces, recognition of faces presented 5 min before scanning activated the primary visual cortex, consistent with the hypothesis that retrieved facial information is coded by the reactivation of the brain regions engaged during sensory perception. This reactivation was not observed 14 weeks following initial presentation of the faces despite no significant difference in recognition rate between the two intervals. This suggests that accessing of visual information during memory retrieval is associated with the primary visual cortex, and that its activation is time-dependent--probably related to the memory transformation or consolidation.
authors.affiliation: Section of Cerebral Integration, Department of Cerebral Research, National Institute for Physiological Sciences, Myodaiji, Okazaki, Aichi 444-8585, Japan.
authors.forename: Tomohisa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Okada
authors.forename: Shigeki
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.forename: Toshiharu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nakai
authors.forename: Sadahiko
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nishizawa
authors.forename: Toshio
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Inui
authors.forename: Yoshiharu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yonekura
authors.forename: Junji
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Konishi
authors.forename: Norihiro
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sadato
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005145:Face; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology*