A face is more than just the eyes, nose, and mouth: fMRI evidence that face-selective cortex represents external features

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Frederik S. Kamps, Emory University; Ethan J. Morris, Emory University; Daniel D. Dilks, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2018-09-11
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Publication Version: Author Accepted Manuscript (After Peer Review)
• Copyright Statement: © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
• License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.09.027
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: NeuroImage
• Volume: 184
• Start Page: 90
• End Page: 100
• Grant/Funding Agency: Emory University; National Eye Institute
• Grant/Funding Information: The work was supported by Emory College, Emory University (DD), National Eye Institute grant T32EY7092 (FK), and an independent undergraduate research award from Emory College (EM).
• Keywords: fMRI; fusiform face area (FFA); Occipital Face Area (OFA); superior temporal sulcus (pSTS); Face perception
• Subject - Topics: Cognitive neuroscience; Perception

Abstract

What is a face? Intuition, along with abundant behavioral and neural evidence, indicates that internal features (e.g., eyes, nose, mouth) are critical for face recognition, yet some behavioral and neural findings suggest that external features (e.g., hair, head outline, neck and shoulders) may likewise be processed as a face. Here we directly test this hypothesis by investigating how external (and internal) features are represented in the brain. Using fMRI, we found highly selective responses to external features (relative to objects and scenes) within the face processing system in particular, rivaling that observed for internal features. We then further asked how external and internal features are represented in regions of the cortical face processing system, and found a similar division of labor for both kinds of features, with the occipital face area and posterior superior temporal sulcus representing the parts of both internal and external features, and the fusiform face area representing the coherent arrangement of both internal and external features. Taken together, these results provide strong neural evidence that a “face” is composed of both internal and external features.