title: Face Processing Systems: From Neurons to Real-World Social Perception.
abstract: Primate face processing depends on a distributed network of interlinked face-selective areas composed of face-selective neurons. In both humans and macaques, the network is divided into a ventral stream and a dorsal stream, and the functional similarities of the areas in humans and macaques indicate they are homologous. Neural correlates for face detection, holistic processing, face space, and other key properties of human face processing have been identified at the single neuron level, and studies providing causal evidence have established firmly that face-selective brain areas are central to face processing. These mechanisms give rise to our highly accurate familiar face recognition but also to our error-prone performance with unfamiliar faces. This limitation of the face system has important implications for consequential situations such as eyewitness identification and policing.
authors.affiliation: The Rockefeller University, New York, NY 10065; email: Winrich.Freiwald@rockefeller.edu.
authors.forename: Winrich
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Freiwald
authors.affiliation: Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755.
authors.forename: Bradley
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Duchaine
authors.affiliation: School of Psychological Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel 69978.|Sagol School of Neuroscience, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel 69978.
authors.forename: Galit
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Yovel
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D006801:Humans; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D012938:Social Perception; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: face recognition; functional brain organization; neural mechanisms of behavior; social brain function