Expertise for cars and birds recruits brain areas involved in face recognition
Abstract
Expertise with unfamiliar objects ('greebles') recruits face-selective areas in the fusiform gyrus (FFA) and occipital lobe (OFA). Here we extend this finding to other homogeneous categories. Bird and car experts were tested with functional magnetic resonance imaging during tasks with faces, familiar objects, cars and birds. Homogeneous categories activated the FFA more than familiar objects. Moreover, the right FFA and OFA showed significant expertise effects. An independent behavioral test of expertise predicted relative activation in the right FFA for birds versus cars within each group. The results suggest that level of categorization and expertise, rather than superficial properties of objects, determine the specialization of the FFA.
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The FFA process may be deployed for individuating members of other homogenous categories when perceivers acquire unusual visual expertise.
“However, this process may nevertheless be deployed (and, thus, the FFA activated) for the purpose of individuating members of other homogenous categories, as occurs when perceivers acquire unusual visual expertise (e.g., avid bird watchers; Gauthier et al. 2000).”
From Activity in Right Temporo-Parietal Junction is Not Selective for Theory-of-Mind (2008) · cites this paper as Gauthier et al. 2000
Gauthier et al. (2000) were able to identify an FFA in only 5 of 19 participants when using the criteria adopted by the Kanwisher group for functionally defining this region.
“As reported by Kanwisher [2000], Gauthier et al. [2000] were able to identify an FFA in only 5 of 19 participants when using the criteria adopted by the Kanwisher group forfunctionally defining this region.”
From Activity in Right Temporo-Parietal Junction is Not Selective for Theory-of-Mind (2008) · cites this paper as Gauthier et al. [2000]
These processing benefits are linked to functional reorganizations in the response properties of a region of the right fusiform gyrus.
“These processing benefits are linked to functional reorganizations in the response properties of a region of the right fusiform gyrus [32], which are also associated with changes in the response properties of ERPs recorded within the first 200 ms of processing stimuli [33].”
From The visual word form area: expertise for reading in the fusiform gyrus (2003) · cites this paper as [32]
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“[27,21,18,16,19]) have 200 ms (N200) recorded from ventral occipitotemporal located an area in the fusiform gyrus that is strongly cortex was unaffected by the familiarity of faces and activated when faces are presented, but not in response to showed no habituation, suggesting that this potential houses, scrambled fac…”
BackgroundPerceptual interference supports a non-modular account of face processing
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“…objects ( " Greebles " ) demonstrated increasing activation as subjects became experts at recognizing the objects (Gauthier et al., 1999), and comparison of experts at bird or car recognition demonstrated activation of the fusiform region directly related to expertise (Gauthier et al., 2000).”
BackgroundDehaene-Lambertz, G., Monzalvo, K., & Dehaene, S. (2018) · PLOS Biology · doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.2004103 · Cited by 367 · see citing works
“In adults, fusiform plasticity is sufficient to acquire a novel expertise for birds and cars [58], greebles [59,60], children’s faces in teachers [61], or Braille reading in nonblind adults [62].”
BackgroundThe effects of handwriting experience on functional brain development in pre-literate children
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“[26]).”
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“, 1997), and extending posteriorly into occipital cortex, close to the ‘occipital face area’ (Gauthier et al., 2000) and ‘lateral occipital complex’ (LOC) (Malach et al.”
BackgroundChild and adolescent development : an advanced course
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“Because the SAT does not contain any face representations, the FFA engagement was unexpected, as this region is thought of as selective for faces (Kanwisher et al. 1997) or to other classes of complex objects for which one is perceptually expert (Gauthier et al. 2000).”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialRoutes to remembering: the brains behind superior memory
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Domain specificity versus expertise: factors influencing distinct processing of faces
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“Indeed, it is conceivable that specific processing strategies (for example, holistic versus part-based processing) are an intrinsic part of domain specificity and if (following training) viewers use the face-peculiar processes while perceiving other stimuli, the face-specific areas are activated (Gauthier et al., 2000…”
BackgroundUnraveling mechanisms for expert object recognition: Bridging brain activity and behavior.
Gauthier, L., & Tarr, M. J. (2002) · Journal of Experimental Psychology Human Perception & Performance · doi:10.1037//0096-1523.28.2.431 · Cited by 424 · see citing works
Deep Hierarchies in the Primate Visual Cortex: What Can We Learn for Computer Vision?
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“For instance, a bird-watcher with prosopagnosia cannot tell birds apart anymore and car experts cannot make fine car distinctions [58].”
BackgroundCultural objects modulate reward circuitry
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“A popular theory regarding the FFA is that it is linked to expertise (Gauthier et al. 2000), and although most of us become face experts by a very young age, Schultz et al.”
BackgroundFunctional imaging of human crossmodal identification and object recognition
Amedi, A., von Kriegstein, K., van Atteveldt, N., Beauchamp, M. S., & Naumer, M. J. (2005) · Experimental Brain Research · doi:10.1007/s00221-005-2396-5 · Cited by 351 · see citing works
“1), letters (Gauthier et al. 2000; Polk et al. 2002), and visual word forms (McCandliss et al. 2003) have been described .”
BackgroundInfluentialDevelopment of face-sensitive event-related potentials during infancy: a review
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“Evidence to support this view comes 190 from studies showing that effects similar to those 191 previously thought to be specific to faces can be 192 obtained for other categories for which participants 193 show expertise (Gauthier et al., 1999, 2000; Tarr 194 and Gauthier, 2000).”
BackgroundNatural Scene Categories Revealed in Distributed Patterns of Activity in the Human Brain
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“, 1997), the FFA has also been reported to be activated for other kinds of objects (GrillSpector et al., 1999; Gauthier et al., 2000; Tarr and Gauthier, 2000; Haxby et al., 2001).”
BackgroundA meta-analysis and review of holistic face processing.
Richler, J. J., & Gauthier, I. (2014) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/a0037004 · Cited by 340 · see citing works
“…are typically obtained with nonface objects of expertise, and objects of expertise can recruit the FFA (Bilalíc, Langner, Ulrich, & Grodd, 2011; Gauthier et al., 2003, 2000; Gauthier, Tarr, Anderson, Skudlarski, & Gore, 1999; McGugin, Gatenby, et al., 2012; Y. K. Wong, Folstein, & Gauthier,…”
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“…view has been obtained from behavioral and neuroimaging studies showing that effects previously thought to be specific to faces can also be obtained with other categories for which participants show expertise (Gauthier et al 1999; Gauthier et al 2000; Tarr and Gauthier 2000; Rossion et al 2002).”
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“Previous research has highlighted the role of exposure to faces in the development of face processing and its underlying mechanisms (Gauthier et al. 2000).”
BackgroundBeyond faces and modularity: the power of an expertise framework
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Neural Representations of Faces and Body Parts in Macaque and Human Cortex: A Comparative fMRI Study
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What can Functional Neuroimaging Tell the Experimental Psychologist?
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Palmeri, T. J., & Gauthier, L. (2004) · Nature reviews. Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/nrn1364 · Cited by 332 · see citing works
“In an fMRI study in which car or bird experts selectively attended to the identity or the location of faces, birds or car”
BackgroundExpert face processing requires visual input to the right hemisphere during infancy
Grand, R. L., Mondloch, C. J., Maurer, D. M., & Brent, H. P. (2003) · Nature Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/nn1121 · Cited by 323 · see citing works
“For example, it may be a prerequisite for the development of later expertise in differentiating among individual members of other homogeneous classes such as car experts' ability to differentiate among similarly shaped car”
BackgroundGeorge, N., Driver, J., & Dolan, R. J. (2001) · NeuroImage · doi:10.1006/nimg.2001.0769 · Cited by 323 · see citing works
“More recently, it has been shown that the fusiform response can be sensitive to recognition of individuals (Gauthier et al., 2000, 1999; George et al., 1999; Sergent et al., 1994, 1992), and is stronger for attended faces (Wojciulik et al., 1998).”
BackgroundPartially Distributed Representations of Objects and Faces in Ventral Temporal Cortex
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“Neuroimaging studies of ventral temporal (VT) cortex responses to objects have concluded variously in favor of modular (Spiridon & Kanwisher, 2002; Kanwisher, McDermott, & Chun, 1997), distributed (Carlson, Schrater, & He, 2003; Cox & Savoy, 2003; Haxby et al., 2001), and process-based ( Gauthier, Skudlarski, Gore, &…”
BackgroundInteraction of Face and Voice Areas during Speaker Recognition
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“As effects of familiarity and expertise have been observed in the FFA ( Gauthier, Skudlarski, Gore, & Anderson, 2000; Tarr & Gauthier, 2000), its response to voices of familiar persons could alternatively be seen as a supramodal effect resulting from convergence of inputs from segregated perceptual modules for faces a…”
Can Face Recognition Really be Dissociated from Object Recognition?
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No face-like processing for objects-of-expertise in three behavioural tasks
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“Cars (Gauthier et al., 2000) Sequential matching d 0 = .57 * d 0 = .84 * — — Birds (Gauthier et al., 2000) Sequential matching d 0 = .05 ns d 0 = .30 ns — — Cars (Xu et al., 2005) Sequential matching 8% À 8% À ns — d 0 = .44 À d 0 = .87 À * — Fingerprints (Busey & Vanderkolk, 2005) Face/print…”
BackgroundResultThe Role of Perceptual Load in Processing Distractor Faces
Lavie, N., Ro, T., & Russell, C. (2003) · Psychological Science · doi:10.1111/1467-9280.03453 · Cited by 313 · see citing works
“5, SEPTEMBER 2003 515 Tarr, 1997) and neural correlates (Gauthier et al., 2000) similar to those found for faces, suggesting that face perception may not be special.”
BackgroundImplicit multisensory associations influence voice recognition
von Kriegstein, K., & Giraud, A.-L. (2006) · PLoS Biology · doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0040326 · Cited by 309 · see citing works
“Voicename association, however, balances voice-face learning, because matching names with voices is about as frequent in everyday life as matching faces with voices, and it additionally controls for familiarization with voices throughout the experiment and potential expertise effects [26,27].”
BackgroundA role for left temporal pole in the retrieval of words for unique entities
Grabowski, T. J., Damásio, H., Tranel, D., Ponto, L. L. B., Hichwa, R. D., & Damásio, A. R. (2001) · Human Brain Mapping · doi:10.1002/hbm.1033 · Cited by 308 · see citing works
The development of face expertise
Gauthier, L., & Nelson, C. A. (2001) · Current Opinion in Neurobiology · doi:10.1016/s0959-4388(00)00200-2 · Cited by 307 · see citing works
Unraveling mechanisms for expert object recognition: Bridging brain activity and behavior.
Gauthier, L., & Tarr, M. J. (2002) · Journal of Experimental Psychology Human Perception & Performance · doi:10.1037/0096-1523.28.2.431 · Cited by 302 · see citing works
Impairments in facial affect recognition associated with autism spectrum disorders: A meta-analysis
Lozier, L. M., VanMeter, J. W., & Marsh, A. A. (2014) · Development and Psychopathology · doi:10.1017/s0954579414000479 · Cited by 299 · see citing works
- Authors
- Gauthier, I., Skudlarski, P., Gore, J. C., & Anderson, A. W.
- Affiliations
- Yale University (US)
- Venue
- Nature Neuroscience
- Published
- 2000-02
- Volume
- 3
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 191-197
- ISSN
- 1097-6256 (ISSN-L)
- 1546-1726
- OpenAlex
- W2126883639
- Cited by
- 1,418
- References
- 41
- Citations by year
- 2026: 14 · 2025: 28 · 2024: 22 · 2023: 47 · 2022: 46 · 2021: 67 · 2020: 49 · 2019: 62 · 2018: 60 · 2017: 62 · 2016: 60 · 2015: 51 · 2014: 63 · 2013: 66 · 2012: 54
- FWCI
- 28.92
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Nature Neuroscience (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (1r01mh056037-01)
- National Institute of Mental Health (MH 56037)
- National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NS 33332, R01NS033332)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
- Keywords
- face recognition (cognition), fusiform gyrus, occipital face area, Greebles, face-selective areas, right hemisphere, object recognition
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Animals, Automobiles, Birds, Brain Mapping, Data Display, Face, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Occipital Lobe, Pattern Recognition, Visual, Photic Stimulation, Professional Competence, Task Performance and Analysis, Temporal Lobe
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