title: Intracerebral electrical stimulation of a face-selective area in the right inferior occipital cortex impairs individual face discrimination.
abstract: During intracerebral stimulation of the right inferior occipital cortex, a patient with refractory epilepsy was transiently impaired at discriminating two simultaneously presented photographs of unfamiliar faces. The critical electrode contact was located in the most posterior face-selective brain area of the human brain (right "occipital face area", rOFA) as shown both by low- (ERP) and high-frequency (gamma) electrophysiological responses as well as a face localizer in fMRI. At this electrode contact, periodic visual presentation of 6 different faces by second evoked a larger electrophysiological periodic response at 6 Hz than when the same face identity was repeated at the same rate. This intracerebral EEG repetition suppression effect was markedly reduced when face stimuli were presented upside-down, a manipulation that impairs individual face discrimination. These findings provide original evidence for a causal relationship between the face-selective right inferior occipital cortex and individual face discrimination, independently of long-term memory representations. More generally, they support the functional value of electrophysiological repetition suppression effects, indicating that these effects can be used as an index of a necessary neural representation of the changing stimulus property.
authors.affiliation: Service de Neurologie, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Nancy, 29 Avenue du Maréchal de Lattre de Tassigny, 54000 Nancy, France; Université de Lorraine, CRAN, UMR 7039, Campus Sciences, Boulevard des Aiguillettes, 54500 Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy, France; CNRS, CRAN, UMR 7039, Campus Sciences, Boulevard des Aiguillettes, 54500 Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy, France; Faculté de Médecine de Nancy, Université de Lorraine, 9 Avenue de la Forêt de Haye, 54500 Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy, France; Université Catholique de Louvain, 10 Place du Cardinal Mercier, 1348 Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium. Electronic address: j.jonas@chu-nancy.fr.
authors.forename: Jacques
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jonas
authors.affiliation: Université Catholique de Louvain, 10 Place du Cardinal Mercier, 1348 Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium.
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Rossion
authors.affiliation: Université de Lorraine, CRAN, UMR 7039, Campus Sciences, Boulevard des Aiguillettes, 54500 Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy, France; CNRS, CRAN, UMR 7039, Campus Sciences, Boulevard des Aiguillettes, 54500 Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy, France.
authors.forename: Julien
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Krieg
authors.affiliation: Université de Lorraine, CRAN, UMR 7039, Campus Sciences, Boulevard des Aiguillettes, 54500 Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy, France; CNRS, CRAN, UMR 7039, Campus Sciences, Boulevard des Aiguillettes, 54500 Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy, France.
authors.forename: Laurent
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Koessler
authors.affiliation: Faculté de Médecine de Nancy, Université de Lorraine, 9 Avenue de la Forêt de Haye, 54500 Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy, France; Service de Neurochirurgie, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Nancy, 29 Avenue du Maréchal de Lattre de Tassigny, 54000 Nancy, France.
authors.forename: Sophie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Colnat-Coulbois
authors.affiliation: Service de Neurologie, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Nancy, 29 Avenue du Maréchal de Lattre de Tassigny, 54000 Nancy, France; Université de Lorraine, CRAN, UMR 7039, Campus Sciences, Boulevard des Aiguillettes, 54500 Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy, France; CNRS, CRAN, UMR 7039, Campus Sciences, Boulevard des Aiguillettes, 54500 Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy, France; Faculté de Médecine de Nancy, Université de Lorraine, 9 Avenue de la Forêt de Haye, 54500 Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy, France.
authors.forename: Hervé
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Vespignani
authors.affiliation: Université Catholique de Louvain, 10 Place du Cardinal Mercier, 1348 Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium.
authors.forename: Corentin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jacques
authors.affiliation: Service de Neurologie, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Nancy, 29 Avenue du Maréchal de Lattre de Tassigny, 54000 Nancy, France; Université de Lorraine, CRAN, UMR 7039, Campus Sciences, Boulevard des Aiguillettes, 54500 Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy, France; CNRS, CRAN, UMR 7039, Campus Sciences, Boulevard des Aiguillettes, 54500 Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy, France.
authors.forename: Jean-Pierre
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Vignal
authors.affiliation: Service de Neurologie, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Nancy, 29 Avenue du Maréchal de Lattre de Tassigny, 54000 Nancy, France.
authors.forename: Hélène
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Brissart
authors.affiliation: Service de Neurologie, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Nancy, 29 Avenue du Maréchal de Lattre de Tassigny, 54000 Nancy, France; Université de Lorraine, CRAN, UMR 7039, Campus Sciences, Boulevard des Aiguillettes, 54500 Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy, France; CNRS, CRAN, UMR 7039, Campus Sciences, Boulevard des Aiguillettes, 54500 Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy, France; Faculté de Médecine de Nancy, Université de Lorraine, 9 Avenue de la Forêt de Haye, 54500 Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy, France.
authors.forename: Louis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Maillard
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D004567:Electrodes, Implanted; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000523:psychology*; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D009778:Occipital Lobe; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D021641:Recognition, Psychology
keywords: Electrical brain stimulation; Fast periodic visual stimulation; Individual face discrimination; Intracerebral recordings; Occipital face area; Repetition suppression