Face-specific processing in the human fusiform gyrus
Abstract
The perception of faces is sometimes regarded as a specialized task involving discrete brain regions. In an attempt to identi$ face-specific cortex, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure activation evoked by faces presented in a continuously changing montage of common objects or in a similar montage of nonobjects. Bilateral regions of the posterior fusiform gyrus were activated by faces viewed among nonobjects, but when viewed among objects, faces activated only a focal right fusiform region. To determine whether this focal activation would occur for another category of familiar stimuli, subjects viewed flowers presented among nonobjects and objects. While flowers among nonobjects evoked bilateral fusiform activation, flowers among objects evoked no activation. These results demonstrate that both faces and flowers activate large and partially overlapping regions of inferior extrastriate cortex. A smaller region, located primarily in the right lateral fusiform gyrus, is activated specifically by faces.
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The fusiform gyrus is central to visual face perception and meta-analyses show it is hyper-reactive to negative emotional stimuli in SAD.
“The fusiform gyrus plays a central role in visual face perception (McCarthy, Puce, Gore, & Allison, 1997), and has been shown in a meta-analyses to be hyper-reactive to negative emotional stimuli in social anxiety disorder (Brühl, Delsignore, et al., 2014; Etkin & Wager, 2007).”
From Changes in functional connectivity with cognitive behavioral therapy for social anxiety disorder predict outcomes at follow-up (2020) · cites this paper as McCarthy, Puce, Gore, & Allison, 1997
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- Authors
- McCarthy, G., Puce, A., Gore, J. C., & Allison, T.
- Affiliations
- Yale University (US)
- Venue
- Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
- Publisher
- MIT Press - Journals
- Published
- 1997
- Volume
- 9
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 605-610
- ISSN
- 0898-929X (ISSN-L)
- 1530-8898
- OpenAlex
- W2023961799
- Cited by
- 1,127
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 24 · 2025: 31 · 2024: 28 · 2023: 25 · 2022: 41 · 2021: 32 · 2020: 43 · 2019: 34 · 2018: 47 · 2017: 41 · 2016: 41 · 2015: 43 · 2014: 43 · 2013: 49 · 2012: 46
- FWCI
- 19.53
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- IUScholarWorks (Indiana University) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
- Yale University
- National Institute of Mental Health
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition › Face recognition and analysis
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
- Keywords
- face perception, fusiform gyrus, object recognition, flowers, hemispheric lateralization, visual object processing
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