The neural basis of face recognition? Tim Andrews

The neural basis of face recognition?

Tim Andrews

Familiar

Unfamiliar

Hancock, Bruce and Burton (2000) Trends in Cognitive Sciences 4:330-337Jenkins, White, Van Monfort, Burton (2011) Cognition 121: 313-323

Outline

1. Which areas of the brain respond to images of faces?

2. Are these regions selective for the identity of the face?

3. Which aspects of the face are important for representing facial identity?

4. Is an image-invariant neural code used to represent information about identity?

5. Are face-selective regions sufficient for face recognition?

Face localiser scan

Face-selective regions

FFA: fusiform face areaOFA: occipital face areaSTS: superior temporal sulcus

7.4

4.6

zscore

OFA

STS

FFA

Haxby, Hoffman & Gobbini, TICS 4: 223-233 (2000)Bruce & Young (1986) Br. J. Psychology 77: 305-327Calder & Young, Nature Reviews Neuroscience 6: 641-51 (2005)

Outline

1. Which areas of the brain respond to images of faces?

2. Are these regions selective for the identity of the face?

3. Which aspects of the face are important for representing facial identity?

4. Is an image-invariant neural code used to represent information about identity?

5. Are face-selective regions sufficient for face recognition?

fMR-adaptation

Grill-Spector, Henson & Martin (2006) Trends Cog Sci 10: 14-23Krekelberg, Boynton and van Wezel (2006) Trends Neurosci 29: 250-256

Andrews, Clarke, Pell, Hartley (2010) Neuroimage 49: 703-711

fMR- adaptation to intact, but not scrambled faces

Andrews, Clarke, Pell, Hartley (2010) Neuroimage 49: 703-711

No adaptation to images of places

Outline

1. Which areas of the brain respond to images of faces?

2. Are these regions selective for the identity of the face?

3. Which aspects of the face are important for representing facial identity?

4. Is an image-invariant neural code used to represent information about identity?

5. Are face-selective regions sufficient for face recognition?

Internal and external features

fMR-adaptation to internal and external features of faces

Andrews, Davies-Thompson, Kingstone & Young (2010) J. Neuroscience 30: 3544-22

Composite face images

Adaptation to composite faces

same internal, same external

same internal, diff. external

diff. internal, same external

diff. internal, diff. external

Andrews, Davies-Thompson, Kingstone & Young (2010) J. Neuroscience 30: 3544-22

The Presidential Illusion!

FFA OFA STS

Sinha and Poggio (1996) Nature 384:404

Sinha and Poggio (2002) Perception 31:131

Face to Face Coalition!

FFA OFA STS

Andrews and Thompson (2010) iPerception 1: 28-30

Outline

1. Which areas of the brain respond to images of faces?

2. Are these regions selective for the identity of the face?

3. Which aspects of the face are important for representing facial identity?

4. Is an image-invariant neural code used to represent information about identity?

5. Are face-selective regions sufficient for face recognition?

Familiar

Unfamiliar

Experiment 1: same identity

Experiment 2: different identity

Image invariant adaptation to familiar faces in FFAFFA

Experiment 1: same identity

Experiment 2: different identity

Image invariant adaptation to unfamiliar faces in FFAFFA

Experiment 1: same identity

Experiment 2: different identity

No adaptation to facial identity in STS

Outline

1. Which areas of the brain respond to images of faces?

2. Are these regions selective for the identity of the face?

3. Which aspects of the face are important for representing facial identity?

4. Is an image-invariant neural code used to represent information about identity?

5. Are face-selective regions sufficient for face recognition?

Case Study - JJ

17 year old male

Complete loss of vision following head trauma

Visual acuity recovered after 5 days, but he retained a specific deficit in colour

and face perception

10 days after injury, battery of visual tests revealed normal acuity, stereopsis,

motion discrimination, contrast sensitivity, object/place recognition, but still had

abnormal colour vision and remained densely prosopagnosic.

After 4 months he showed a complete recovery of colour and face perception.

Structural MRI revealed no obvious lesion

Normal functional responses in face-selective regions

FFA FFA STS OFA FFA

FFAPre-recovery Post-recovery Controls

Conclusions

Thanks to…• Jodie Davies-Thompson• Andy Young• Heidi Baseler• Andre Gouws• Simon Hickman• Alan Kingstone• Tony Morland• Peter Thompson

• Wellcome Trust• ESRC