title: Evaluation of a shape-based model of human face discrimination using FMRI and behavioral techniques.
abstract: Understanding the neural mechanisms underlying object recognition is one of the fundamental challenges of visual neuroscience. While neurophysiology experiments have provided evidence for a "simple-to-complex" processing model based on a hierarchy of increasingly complex image features, behavioral and fMRI studies of face processing have been interpreted as incompatible with this account. We present a neurophysiologically plausible, feature-based model that quantitatively accounts for face discrimination characteristics, including face inversion and "configural" effects. The model predicts that face discrimination is based on a sparse representation of units selective for face shapes, without the need to postulate additional, "face-specific" mechanisms. We derive and test predictions that quantitatively link model FFA face neuron tuning, neural adaptation measured in an fMRI rapid adaptation paradigm, and face discrimination performance. The experimental data are in excellent agreement with the model prediction that discrimination performance should asymptote as faces become dissimilar enough to activate different neuronal populations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, District of Columbia 20007, USA.
authors.forename: Xiong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Ezra
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Rosen
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zeffiro
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vanmeter
authors.forename: Volker
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Blanz
authors.forename: Maximilian
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Riesenhuber
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000098:blood supply / Q000502:physiology; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D005364:Field Dependence-Independence; D005793:Generalization, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008959:Models, Neurological; D008960:Models, Psychological; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011601:Psychophysics / Q000379:methods; D021641:Recognition, Psychology
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen