The neural basis of face recognition?

Tim Andrews

Familiar

Unfamiliar

Hancock, Bruce and Burton (2000) Trends in Cognitive Sciences 4:330-337Jenkins, White, Van Monfort, Burton (2011) Cognition 121: 313-323

Outline

1. Which areas of the brain respond to images of faces?

2. Are these regions selective for the identity of the face?

3. Which aspects of the face are important for representing facial identity?

4. Is an image-invariant neural code used to represent information about identity?

5. Are face-selective regions sufficient for face recognition?

Face localiser scan

fMRI analysis - modelling the data

Face-selective regions

FFA: fusiform face areaOFA: occipital face areaSTS: superior temporal sulcus

7.4

4.6

zscore

OFA

STS

FFA

Haxby, Hoffman & Gobbini, TICS 4: 223-233 (2000)Bruce & Young (1986) Br. J. Psychology 77: 305-327Calder & Young, Nature Reviews Neuroscience 6: 641-51 (2005)

Outline

1. Which areas of the brain respond to images of faces?

2. Are these regions selective for the identity of the face?

3. Which aspects of the face are important for representing facial identity?

4. Is an image-invariant neural code used to represent information about identity?

5. Are face-selective regions sufficient for face recognition?

fMR-adaptation

Grill-Spector, Henson & Martin (2006) Trends Cog Sci 10: 14-23Krekelberg, Boynton and van Wezel (2006) Trends Neurosci 29: 250-256

fMR-adaptation

Grill-Spector et al (1999) Neuron 24: 187-203Henson et al. (2000) Science 287: 1269-72Andrews & Ewbank, Neuroimage 23: 905-913(2004)Grill-Spector, Henson & Martin (2006) Trends Cog Sci 10: 14-23

Andrews, Clarke, Pell, Hartley (2010) Neuroimage 49: 703-711

fMR- adaptation to intact, but not scrambled faces

Andrews, Clarke, Pell, Hartley (2010) Neuroimage 49: 703-711

No adaptation to images of places

Outline

1. Which areas of the brain respond to images of faces?

2. Are these regions selective for the identity of the face?

3. Which aspects of the face are important for representing facial identity?

4. Is an image-invariant neural code used to represent information about identity?

5. Are face-selective regions sufficient for face recognition?

Internal and external features

fMR-adaptation to internal and external features of familiar faces

Andrews, Davies-Thompson, Kingstone & Young (2010) J. Neuroscience 30: 3544-22

Adaptation to internal and external features of unfamiliar faces

FFA OFA STS

Andrews, Davies-Thompson, Kingstone & Young (2010) J. Neuroscience 30: 3544-22

Composite face images

Adaptation to composite familiar faces

same internal, same external

same internal, diff. external

diff. internal, same external

diff. internal, diff. external

Andrews, Davies-Thompson, Kingstone & Young (2010) J. Neuroscience 30: 3544-22

Adaptation to composite unfamiliar faces

same internal, same external

same internal, diff. external

diff. internal, same external

diff. internal, diff. external

Andrews, Davies-Thompson, Kingstone & Young (2010) J. Neuroscience 30: 3544-22

The Presidential Illusion!

FFA OFA STS

Sinha and Poggio (1996) Nature 384:404

Sinha and Poggio (2002) Perception 31:131

Face to Face Coalition!

FFA OFA STS

Andrews and Thompson (2010) iPerception 1: 28-30

Outline

1. Which areas of the brain respond to images of faces?

2. Are these regions selective for the identity of the face?

3. Which aspects of the face are important for representing facial identity?

4. Is an image-invariant neural code used to represent information about identity?

5. Are face-selective regions sufficient for face recognition?

Familiar

Unfamiliar

Experiment 1: same identity FFA

Image invariant adaptation

Davies-Thompson, Newling and Andrews (2012) Cerebral Cortex in press

Experiment 2: different identity FFA

Image invariant adaptation

Davies-Thompson, Newling and Andrews (2012) Cerebral Cortex in press

Experiment 1: same identity FFA

Image invariant adaptation

Davies-Thompson, Newling and Andrews (2012) Cerebral Cortex in press

Experiment 2: different identity FFA

Image invariant adaptation

Davies-Thompson, Newling and Andrews (2012) Cerebral Cortex in press

Experiment 1

Image invariant adaptationExperiment 2

Outline

1. Which areas of the brain respond to images of faces?

2. Are these regions selective for the identity of the face?

3. Which aspects of the face are important for representing facial identity?

4. Is an image-invariant neural code used to represent information about identity?

5. Are face-selective regions sufficient for face recognition?

Case Study - JJ

17 year old male

Complete loss of vision following head trauma

Visual acuity recovered after 5 days, but he retained a specific deficit in colour

and face perception

10 days after injury, battery of visual tests revealed normal acuity, stereopsis,

motion discrimination, contrast sensitivity, object/place recognition, but still had

abnormal colour vision and remained densely prosopagnosic.

After 4 months he showed a complete recovery of colour and face perception.

Structural MRI revealed no obvious lesion

1

Normal functional responses in face-selective regions

FFA FFA STS OFA FFA

FFAPre-recovery Post-recovery Controls

Normal adaptation to faces in prosopagnosic patient!

Pre-recovery

0 3 6 9 12 15 18

% M

R sig

nal

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

Post-recovery

0 3 6 9 12 15 18

Control participants

0 3 6 9 12 15 18

differentsame

FFA

same

different

Conclusions

Thanks to…• Jodie Davies-Thompson• Andy Young• Heidi Baseler• Andre Gouws• Simon Hickman• Alan Kingstone• Tony Morland• Peter Thompson

• Wellcome Trust• ESRC

JJ – face perception% correct 27/02 04/03 14/03 21/03 28/03 04/04 22/06

Benton Face Recognition Test 90.7 90.7

Cambridge Face Memory Test 85.0

Emotion Recognition Test 41.7 75.0

Eye Gaze Sensitivity Test 50.0 94.4

Sex Discrimination Test 85.4 81.2

Unfamiliar Face Matching Test 91.6 95.8

Familiar Face Recognition Test 0.0 0.0 0.0 100

Forced Choice Face Recognition Test 42.9 100

Famous Caricature Test 40.0 100

Visual Imagery Test 100 100

Face Texture Test 100 100

Face Size Test 100 100

Face Shape Test 75.0 62.5

JJ – non-face object perception

% correct 27/02 04/03 14/03 21/03 28/03 04/04 22/06

National Adult Reading Test (NART) 23/50 17/50

Warrington Recognition Memory Test 100 100

Famous Buildings Test 85.0 85.0

Name Recognition Test 97.6 100

Car Recognition Test 79.2 83.3

Famous London Landmarks Test 88.8

Common Objects Test 100