Face perception plays a central role in social communication and is, arguably, one of the most sophisticated visual perceptual skills in humans. Consequently, face perception has been the subject of intensive investigation and theorizing in both visual and social neuroscience. The organization of neural systems for face perception has stimulated intense debate. Much of this debate has focused on models that posit the existence of a module that is specialized for face perception versus models that propose that face perception is mediated by distributed processing. In our work, we have proposed that face perception is mediated by distributed systems, both in terms of the involvement of multiple brain areas and in terms of locally distributed population codes within these areas. Specifically, we proposed a model for the distributed neural system for face perception that has a Core System of visual extrastriate areas for visual analysis of faces and an Extended System that consists of additional neural systems that work in concert with the Core System to extract various types of information from faces. We also have shown that in visual extrastriate cortices, information that distinguishes faces from other categories of animate and inanimate objects is not restricted to regions that respond maximally to faces, i.e. the fusiform and occipital face areas.

Haxby J.V., Gobbini M.I. (2011). Distributed Neural Systems for Face Perception. OXFORD : Oxford University Press.

Distributed Neural Systems for Face Perception

GOBBINI, MARIA IDA
2011

Abstract

Face perception plays a central role in social communication and is, arguably, one of the most sophisticated visual perceptual skills in humans. Consequently, face perception has been the subject of intensive investigation and theorizing in both visual and social neuroscience. The organization of neural systems for face perception has stimulated intense debate. Much of this debate has focused on models that posit the existence of a module that is specialized for face perception versus models that propose that face perception is mediated by distributed processing. In our work, we have proposed that face perception is mediated by distributed systems, both in terms of the involvement of multiple brain areas and in terms of locally distributed population codes within these areas. Specifically, we proposed a model for the distributed neural system for face perception that has a Core System of visual extrastriate areas for visual analysis of faces and an Extended System that consists of additional neural systems that work in concert with the Core System to extract various types of information from faces. We also have shown that in visual extrastriate cortices, information that distinguishes faces from other categories of animate and inanimate objects is not restricted to regions that respond maximally to faces, i.e. the fusiform and occipital face areas.
2011
The Oxford Handbook of Face Perception
93
110
Haxby J.V., Gobbini M.I. (2011). Distributed Neural Systems for Face Perception. OXFORD : Oxford University Press.
Haxby J.V.; Gobbini M.I.
File in questo prodotto:
Eventuali allegati, non sono esposti

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11585/103559
 Attenzione

Attenzione! I dati visualizzati non sono stati sottoposti a validazione da parte dell'ateneo

Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus ND
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? ND
social impact