A Cortical Region Consisting Entirely of Face-selective Cells

Overview

Journal Science

Specialty Science

Date 2006 Feb 4

PMID 16456083

Citations 483

Authors

Doris Y Tsao

Winrich A Freiwald

Roger B H Tootell

Margaret S Livingstone

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Face perception is a skill crucial to primates. In both humans and macaque monkeys, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) reveals a system of cortical regions that show increased blood flow when the subject views images of faces, compared with images of objects. However, the stimulus selectivity of single neurons within these fMRI-identified regions has not been studied. We used fMRI to identify and target the largest face-selective region in two macaques for single-unit recording. Almost all (97%) of the visually responsive neurons in this region were strongly face selective, indicating that a dedicated cortical area exists to support face processing in the macaque.

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