Cortical representations of bodies and faces are strongest in commonly experienced configurations.
Faces and bodies are perhaps the most salient and evolutionarily important visual stimuli. Using human functional imaging, we found that the strength of face and body representations depends on long-term experience. Representations were strongest for stimuli in their typical combinations of visual field and side (for example, left field, right body), although all conditions were simply reflections and translations of one another. Thus, high-level representations reflect the statistics with which stimuli occur.
Chan
Annie W-Y
AW
Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, US National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA. chanannie@mail.nih.gov
Kravitz
Dwight J
DJ
Truong
Sandra
S
Arizpe
Joseph
J
Baker
Chris I
CI
D000328:Adult; D005121:Extremities; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D014794:Visual Fields / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult