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Multiple-stage impairments of unfamiliar face learning in developmental prosopagnosia: Evidence from fMRI repetition suppression and multi-voxel pattern stability. Neuropsychologia 2022; 176:108370. [PMID: 36165826 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2022.108370] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/28/2022] [Revised: 09/11/2022] [Accepted: 09/15/2022] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
Individuals with developmental prosopagnosia (DP) are characterized by severe face recognition deficits, yet it remains unknown how they are hindered in the process of unfamiliar face learning. Here we tracked the changes of neural activation during unfamiliar face repetition in DP with fMRI to reveal their neural deficits in learning unfamiliar faces. At the perceptual level, we found that the bilateral fusiform face area (FFA) in individuals with DP showed attenuated repetition suppression for faces, suggesting an inefficient perceptual analysis for learned faces. At the mnemonic level, individuals with DP showed decreased multi-voxel pattern stability for repeated faces in bilateral medial temporal lobe (MTL), suggesting an unstable mnemonic representation for learned faces. In addition, resting-state functional connectivity between the FFA and MTL was also disrupted in individuals with DP. Finally, the MTL's unstable mnemonic representation was associated with the impaired face recognition performance in DP. In sum, our study provides evidence that individuals with DP showed multi-stage neural deficits in unfamiliar face learning and sheds new light on how unfamiliar faces are learned in normal population.
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2
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Merolla S, Borella M, Santilli IM, Grassi MP. Prosopamnesia: a case report of amnesia for faces. Neurocase 2022; 28:263-269. [PMID: 35695794 DOI: 10.1080/13554794.2022.2086467] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
Abstract
Prosopamnesia is a face-selective memory disorder in which face learning is impaired, while face-perception disorder (prosopagnosia) and memory disorders for stimuli other than faces are not present. To date, only two cases of prosopamnesia have been reported in adults - one congenital and one secondary to brain damage. This article reports a case of a 68-year-old woman complaining difficulties recognizing persons she had got to know recently. Neuropsychological examination revealed face-specific anterograde amnesia in the absence of prosopagnosia and other memory impairments. Brain MRI did not present any focal abnormality; PET-scan revealed hypoactivation mostly in the frontotemporal area bilaterally. This patient represents the first case of late-onset primary prosopamnesia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stefano Merolla
- Department of Neurology, Desio Hospital, ASST Brianza, Desio, Italy
| | - Monica Borella
- Department of Neurology, Desio Hospital, ASST Brianza, Desio, Italy
| | | | - Maria Pia Grassi
- Department of Neurology, Desio Hospital, ASST Brianza, Desio, Italy
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3
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Haeger A, Pouzat C, Luecken V, N’Diaye K, Elger C, Kennerknecht I, Axmacher N, Dinkelacker V. Face Processing in Developmental Prosopagnosia: Altered Neural Representations in the Fusiform Face Area. Front Behav Neurosci 2021; 15:744466. [PMID: 34867227 PMCID: PMC8636799 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2021.744466] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/26/2021] [Accepted: 10/20/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Rationale: Face expertise is a pivotal social skill. Developmental prosopagnosia (DP), i.e., the inability to recognize faces without a history of brain damage, affects about 2% of the general population, and is a renowned model system of the face-processing network. Within this network, the right Fusiform Face Area (FFA), is particularly involved in face identity processing and may therefore be a key element in DP. Neural representations within the FFA have been examined with Representational Similarity Analysis (RSA), a data-analytical framework in which multi-unit measures of brain activity are assessed with correlation analysis. Objectives: Our study intended to scrutinize modifications of FFA-activation during face encoding and maintenance based on RSA. Methods: Thirteen participants with DP (23-70 years) and 12 healthy control subjects (19-62 years) participated in a functional MRI study, including morphological MRI, a functional FFA-localizer and a modified Sternberg paradigm probing face memory encoding and maintenance. Memory maintenance of one, two, or four faces represented low, medium, and high memory load. We examined conventional activation differences in response to working memory load and applied RSA to compute individual correlation-matrices on the voxel level. Group correlation-matrices were compared via Donsker's random walk analysis. Results: On the functional level, increased memory load entailed both a higher absolute FFA-activation level and a higher degree of correlation between activated voxels. Both aspects were deficient in DP. Interestingly, control participants showed a homogeneous degree of correlation for successful trials during the experiment. In DP-participants, correlation levels between FFA-voxels were significantly lower and were less sustained during the experiment. In behavioral terms, DP-participants performed poorer and had longer reaction times in relation to DP-severity. Furthermore, correlation levels were negatively correlated with reaction times for the most demanding high load condition. Conclusion: We suggest that participants with DP fail to generate robust and maintained neural representations in the FFA during face encoding and maintenance, in line with poorer task performance and prolonged reaction times. In DP, alterations of neural coding in the FFA might therefore explain curtailing in working memory and contribute to impaired long-term memory and mental imagery.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexa Haeger
- JARA-BRAIN, Jülich, Germany
- Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-11), Jülich, Germany
- Department of Neurology, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
| | | | | | - Karim N’Diaye
- Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle épinière, ICM, Inserm U 1127, CNRS UMR 7225, Sorbonne Université, Paris, France
| | | | - Ingo Kennerknecht
- Institute of Human Genetics, Westfaelische Wilhelms-Universitaet Muenster, Muenster, Germany
| | - Nikolai Axmacher
- Department of Neuropsychology, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany
| | - Vera Dinkelacker
- Neurology Department, Hautepierre Hospital, University of Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France
- Rothschild Foundation, Neurology Department, Paris, France
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4
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Gerlach C, Starrfelt R. Patterns of perceptual performance in developmental prosopagnosia: An in-depth case series. Cogn Neuropsychol 2021; 38:27-49. [PMID: 33459172 DOI: 10.1080/02643294.2020.1869709] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
Abstract
Developmental prosopagnosia (DP) is a syndrome characterized by lifelong impairment in face recognition in the absence of brain damage. A key question regarding DP concerns which process(es) might be affected to selectively/disproportionally impair face recognition. We present evidence from a group of DPs, combining an overview of previous results with additional analyses important for understanding their pattern of preserved and impaired perceptual abilities. We argue that for most of these individuals, the common denominator is a deficit in (rapid) processing of global shape information. We conclude that the deficit in this group of DPs is not face-selective, but that it may appear so because faces are more visually similar-and recognized at a more fine-grained level-than objects. Indeed, when the demand on perceptual differentiation and visual similarity are held constant for faces and objects, we find no evidence for a disproportionate deficit for faces in this group of DPs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christian Gerlach
- Department of Psychology, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark
| | - Randi Starrfelt
- Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
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5
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Barton JJS, Davies-Thompson J, Corrow SL. Prosopagnosia and disorders of face processing. HANDBOOK OF CLINICAL NEUROLOGY 2021; 178:175-193. [PMID: 33832676 DOI: 10.1016/b978-0-12-821377-3.00006-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Abstract
Face recognition is a form of expert visual processing. Acquired prosopagnosia is the loss of familiarity for facial identity and has several functional variants, namely apperceptive, amnestic, and associative forms. Acquired forms are usually caused by either occipitotemporal or anterior temporal lesions, right or bilateral in most cases. In addition, there is a developmental form, whose functional and structural origins are still being elucidated. Despite their difficulties with recognizing faces, some of these subjects still show signs of covert recognition, which may have a number of explanations. Other aspects of face perception can be spared in prosopagnosic subjects. Patients with other types of face processing difficulties have been described, including impaired expression processing, impaired lip-reading, false familiarity for faces, and a people-specific amnesia. Recent rehabilitative studies have shown some modest ability to improve face perception in prosopagnosic subjects through perceptual training protocols.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jason J S Barton
- Departments of Medicine (Neurology), Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, and Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
| | - Jodie Davies-Thompson
- Face Research Swansea, Department of Psychology, Swansea University, Sketty, United Kingdom
| | - Sherryse L Corrow
- Visual Cognition Lab, Department of Psychology, Bethel University, St. Paul, MN, United States
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6
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Parallel Processing of Facial Expression and Head Orientation in the Macaque Brain. J Neurosci 2020; 40:8119-8131. [PMID: 32928886 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.0524-20.2020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/04/2020] [Revised: 08/06/2020] [Accepted: 08/10/2020] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
When we move the features of our face, or turn our head, we communicate changes in our internal state to the people around us. How this information is encoded and used by an observer's brain is poorly understood. We investigated this issue using a functional MRI adaptation paradigm in awake male macaques. Among face-selective patches of the superior temporal sulcus (STS), we found a double dissociation of areas processing facial expression and those processing head orientation. The face-selective patches in the STS fundus were most sensitive to facial expression, as was the amygdala, whereas those on the lower, lateral edge of the sulcus were most sensitive to head orientation. The results of this study reveal a new dimension of functional organization, with face-selective patches segregating within the STS. The findings thus force a rethinking of the role of the face-processing system in representing subject-directed actions and supporting social cognition.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT When we are interacting with another person, we make inferences about their emotional state based on visual signals. For example, when a person's facial expression changes, we are given information about their feelings. While primates are thought to have specialized cortical mechanisms for analyzing the identity of faces, less is known about how these mechanisms unpack transient signals, like expression, that can change from one moment to the next. Here, using an fMRI adaptation paradigm, we demonstrate that while the identity of a face is held constant, there are separate mechanisms in the macaque brain for processing transient changes in the face's expression and orientation. These findings shed new light on the function of the face-processing system during social exchanges.
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7
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Bayesian regression-based developmental norms for the Benton Facial Recognition Test in males and females. Behav Res Methods 2020; 52:1516-1527. [PMID: 31907754 DOI: 10.3758/s13428-019-01331-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Face identity recognition is important for social interaction and is impaired in a range of clinical disorders, including several neurodevelopmental disorders. The Benton Facial Recognition Test (BFRT; Benton & Van Allen, 1968), a widely used assessment of identity recognition, is the only standardized test of face identity perception, as opposed to face memory, that has been normed on children and adolescents. However, the existing norms for the BFRT are suboptimal, with several ages not represented and no established time limit (which can lead to inflated scores by allowing individuals with prosopagnosia to use feature matching). Here we address these issues with a large normative dataset of children and adolescents (ages 5-17, N = 398) and adults (ages 18-55; N = 120) who completed a time-limited version of the BFRT. Using Bayesian regression, we demonstrate that face identity perception increases asymptotically from childhood through adulthood, and provide continuous norms based on age and sex that can be used to calculate standard scores. We show that our time limit of 16 seconds per item yields scores comparable to the existing norms without time limits from the non-prosopagnostic samples. We also find that females (N = 156) score significantly higher than males (N = 362), supporting the existence of a female superiority effect for face identification. Overall, these results provide more robust norms for the BFRT and promote future research on face identity perception in developmental populations.
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8
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Gerlach C, Klargaard SK, Alnæs D, Kolskår KK, Karstoft J, Westlye LT, Starrfelt R. Left hemisphere abnormalities in developmental prosopagnosia when looking at faces but not words. Brain Commun 2019; 1:fcz034. [PMID: 32954273 PMCID: PMC7425287 DOI: 10.1093/braincomms/fcz034] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/28/2019] [Revised: 09/11/2019] [Accepted: 10/17/2019] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Developmental prosopagnosia is a disorder characterized by profound and lifelong difficulties with face recognition in the absence of sensory or intellectual deficits or known brain injury. While there has been a surge in research on developmental prosopagnosia over the last decade and a half, the cognitive mechanisms behind the disorder and its neural underpinnings remain elusive. Most recently it has been proposed that developmental prosopagnosia may be a manifestation of widespread disturbance in neural migration which affects both face responsive brain regions as well as other category-sensitive visual areas. We present a combined behavioural and functional MRI study of face, object and word processing in a group of developmental prosopagnosics (N = 15). We show that developmental prosopagnosia is associated with reduced activation of core ventral face areas during perception of faces. The reductions were bilateral but tended to be more pronounced in the left hemisphere. As the first study to address category selectivity for word processing in developmental prosopagnosia, we do not, however, find evidence for reduced activation of the visual word form area during perception of orthographic material. We also find no evidence for reduced activation of the lateral occipital complex during perception of objects. These imaging findings correspond well with the behavioural performance of the developmental prosopagnosics, who show severe impairment for faces but normal reading and recognition of line drawings. Our findings suggest that a general deficit in neural migration across ventral occipito-temporal cortex is not a viable explanation for developmental prosopagnosia. The finding of left hemisphere involvement in our group of developmental prosopagnosics was at first surprising. However, a closer look at existing studies shows similar, but hitherto undiscussed, findings. These left hemisphere abnormalities seen in developmental prosopagnosia contrasts with lesion and imaging studies suggesting primarily right hemisphere involvement in acquired prosopagnosia, and this may reflect that the left hemisphere is important for the development of a normal face recognition network.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christian Gerlach
- Department of Psychology, University of Southern Denmark, DK-5230 Odense, Denmark.,BRIDGE, University of Southern Denmark, DK-5230 Odense, Denmark
| | - Solja K Klargaard
- Department of Psychology, University of Southern Denmark, DK-5230 Odense, Denmark
| | - Dag Alnæs
- NORMENT, Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo 0424, Norway
| | - Knut K Kolskår
- NORMENT, Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo 0424, Norway.,Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo 0317, Norway
| | - Jens Karstoft
- BRIDGE, University of Southern Denmark, DK-5230 Odense, Denmark.,Department of Radiology, Odense University Hospital, Odense DK-5230, Denmark
| | - Lars T Westlye
- NORMENT, Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo 0424, Norway.,Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo 0317, Norway
| | - Randi Starrfelt
- Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen DK-1353, Denmark
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9
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Gerlach C, Klargaard SK, Petersen A, Starrfelt R. Delayed processing of global shape information in developmental prosopagnosia. PLoS One 2017; 12:e0189253. [PMID: 29261708 PMCID: PMC5738059 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0189253] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/25/2017] [Accepted: 11/22/2017] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
There is accumulating evidence suggesting that a central deficit in developmental prosopagnosia (DP), a disorder characterized by profound and lifelong difficulties with face recognition, concerns impaired holistic processing. Some of this evidence comes from studies using Navon’s paradigm where individuals with DP show a greater local or reduced global bias compared with controls. However, it has not been established what gives rise to this altered processing bias. Is it a reduced global precedence effect, changes in susceptibility to interference effects or both? By analyzing the performance of 10 individuals with DP in Navon’s paradigm we find evidence of a reduced global precedence effect: The DPs are slower than controls to process global but not local shape information. Importantly, and in contrast to previous studies, we demonstrate that the DPs perform normally in a comprehensive test of visual attention, showing normal: visual short-term memory capacity, speed of visual processing, efficiency of top-down selectivity, and allocation of attentional resources. Hence, we conclude that the reduced global precedence effect reflects a perceptual rather than an attentional deficit. We further show that this reduced global precedence effect correlates both with the DPs’ face recognition abilities, as well as their ability to recognize degraded (non-face) objects. We suggest that the DPs’ impaired performance in all three domains (Navon, face and object recognition) may be related to the same dysfunction; delayed derivation of global relative to local shape information.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christian Gerlach
- Department of Psychology, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark
- * E-mail:
| | - Solja K. Klargaard
- Department of Psychology, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark
| | - Anders Petersen
- Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Randi Starrfelt
- Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
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10
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Abstract
A longstanding controversy concerns the functional organization of high-level vision, and the extent to which the recognition of different classes of visual stimuli engages a single system or multiple independent systems. We examine this in the context of congenital prosopagnosia (CP), a neurodevelopmental disorder in which individuals, without a history of brain damage, are impaired at face recognition. This paper reviews all CP cases from 1976 to 2016, and explores the evidence for the association or dissociation of face and object recognition. Of the 238 CP cases with data permitting a satisfactory evaluation, 80.3% evinced an association between impaired face and object recognition whereas 19.7% evinced a dissociation. We evaluate the strength of the evidence and correlate the face and object recognition behaviour. We consider the implications for theories of functional organization of the visual system, and offer suggestions for further adjudication of the relationship between face and object recognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jacob Geskin
- a Department of Psychology and Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition , Carnegie Mellon University , Pittsburgh , PA , USA
| | - Marlene Behrmann
- a Department of Psychology and Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition , Carnegie Mellon University , Pittsburgh , PA , USA
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11
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Peters JC, Kemner C. Proficient use of low spatial frequencies facilitates face memory but shows protracted maturation throughout adolescence. Acta Psychol (Amst) 2017; 179:61-67. [PMID: 28732282 DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2017.07.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/23/2017] [Revised: 04/30/2017] [Accepted: 07/10/2017] [Indexed: 10/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Face perception is characterized by configural processing, which depends on visual information in the low spatial frequency (LSF) ranges. However, it is unclear whether LSF content is equally important for face memory. The present study investigated how face information in the low and high SF range plays a role in the configural encoding of faces for short-term and long-term recall. Moreover, we examined how SF-dependent face memorization develops in female adolescence, by comparing children (9-10-year-olds), adolescents (12-13-year-olds and 15-16-year-olds), and young adults (21-32-year-olds). Results show that similar to face perception, delayed face recognition was consistently facilitated by LSF content. However, only adults were able to adequately employ configural LSF cues for short-term recall, analogous to the slow maturation of LSF-driven configural face perception reported by previous studies. Moreover, the insensitivity to face inversion of early adolescents revealed their inadequate use of configural face cues regardless of SF availability, corroborating previous reports on an adolescent "dip" in face recognition. Like face perception, face recognition has a protracted maturational course. In (female) adolescence, sensitivity to configural LSF cues is developed, which aids not only configural face perception but also face memorization.
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12
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Zhao Y, Li J, Liu X, Song Y, Wang R, Yang Z, Liu J. Altered spontaneous neural activity in the occipital face area reflects behavioral deficits in developmental prosopagnosia. Neuropsychologia 2016; 89:344-355. [PMID: 27475965 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2016.05.027] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/04/2015] [Revised: 05/04/2016] [Accepted: 05/24/2016] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
Individuals with developmental prosopagnosia (DP) exhibit severe difficulties in recognizing faces and to a lesser extent, also exhibit difficulties in recognizing non-face objects. We used fMRI to investigate whether these behavioral deficits could be accounted for by altered spontaneous neural activity. Two aspects of spontaneous neural activity were measured: the intensity of neural activity in a voxel indexed by the fractional amplitude of spontaneous low-frequency fluctuations (fALFF), and the connectivity of a voxel to neighboring voxels indexed by regional homogeneity (ReHo). Compared with normal adults, both the fALFF and ReHo values within the right occipital face area (rOFA) were significantly reduced in DP subjects. Follow-up studies on the normal adults revealed that these two measures indicated further functional division of labor within the rOFA. The fALFF in the rOFA was positively correlated with behavioral performance in recognition of non-face objects, whereas ReHo in the rOFA was positively correlated with processing of faces. When considered together, the altered fALFF and ReHo within the same region (rOFA) may account for the comorbid deficits in both face and object recognition in DPs, whereas the functional division of labor in these two measures helps to explain the relative independency of deficits in face recognition and object recognition in DP.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuanfang Zhao
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; Center for Collaboration and Innovation in Brain and Learning Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
| | - Jingguang Li
- College of Education, Dali University, Dali 671003, China
| | - Xiqin Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; Center for Collaboration and Innovation in Brain and Learning Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
| | - Yiying Song
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; Center for Collaboration and Innovation in Brain and Learning Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
| | - Ruosi Wang
- Psychology Department, Harvard University, 02138 USA
| | - Zetian Yang
- The Rockefeller University, New York, NY 10065, USA
| | - Jia Liu
- Center for Collaboration and Innovation in Brain and Learning Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; School of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
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13
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Nordt M, Hoehl S, Weigelt S. The use of repetition suppression paradigms in developmental cognitive neuroscience. Cortex 2016; 80:61-75. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2016.04.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 54] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/12/2015] [Revised: 02/29/2016] [Accepted: 04/04/2016] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
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14
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Brain signal complexity rises with repetition suppression in visual learning. Neuroscience 2016; 326:1-9. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2016.03.059] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/23/2015] [Revised: 03/24/2016] [Accepted: 03/28/2016] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
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15
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N170 adaptation effect for repeated faces and words. Neuroscience 2015; 294:21-8. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2015.03.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/17/2014] [Revised: 02/18/2015] [Accepted: 03/05/2015] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
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16
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Shah P, Gaule A, Gaigg SB, Bird G, Cook R. Probing short-term face memory in developmental prosopagnosia. Cortex 2014; 64:115-22. [PMID: 25461712 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2014.10.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 38] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/13/2014] [Revised: 07/16/2014] [Accepted: 10/17/2014] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
Abstract
It has recently been proposed that the face recognition deficits seen in neurodevelopmental disorders may reflect impaired short-term face memory (STFM). For example, introducing a brief delay between the presentation of target and test faces seems to disproportionately impair matching or recognition performance in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders. The present study sought to determine whether deficits of STFM contribute to impaired face recognition seen in Developmental Prosopagnosia. To determine whether developmental prosopagnosics exhibit impaired STFM, the present study used a six-alternative-forced-choice match-to-sample procedure. Memory demand was manipulated by employing a short or long delay between the presentation of the target face, and the six test faces. Crucially, the perceptual demands were identical in both conditions, thereby allowing the independent contribution of STFM to be assessed. Prosopagnosics showed clear evidence of a category-specific impairment for face-matching in both conditions; they were both slower and less accurate than matched controls. Crucially, however, the prosopagnosics showed no evidence of disproportionate face recognition impairment in the long-interval condition. While individuals with DP may have problems with the perceptual encoding of faces, it appears that their representations are stable over short durations. These results suggest that the face recognition difficulties seen in DP and autism may be qualitatively different, attributable to deficits of perceptual encoding and perceptual maintenance, respectively.
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Affiliation(s)
- Punit Shah
- Department of Psychology, City University London, London, UK; MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London, University of London, London, UK
| | - Anne Gaule
- Department of Psychology, City University London, London, UK; Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, University of London, London, UK
| | | | - Geoffrey Bird
- MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London, University of London, London, UK; Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, University of London, London, UK
| | - Richard Cook
- Department of Psychology, City University London, London, UK.
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17
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Liu TT, Behrmann M. Impaired holistic processing of left-right composite faces in congenital prosopagnosia. Front Hum Neurosci 2014; 8:750. [PMID: 25324755 PMCID: PMC4179530 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2014.00750] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/05/2014] [Accepted: 09/05/2014] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Congenital prosopagnosia (CP) refers to a lifelong impairment in face processing despite normal visual and intellectual skills. Many studies have suggested that the key underlying deficit in CP is one of a failure to engage holistic processing. Moreover, there has been some suggestion that, in normal observers, there may be greater involvement of the right than left hemisphere in holistic processing. To examine the proposed deficit in holistic processing and its potential hemispheric atypicality in CP, we compared the performance of 8 CP individuals with both matched controls and a large group of non-matched controls on a novel, vertical composite task. In this task, participants judged whether a cued half of a face (either left or right half) was the same or different at study and test, and the two face halves could be either aligned or misaligned. The standard index of holistic processing is one in which the unattended face half influences performance on the cued half and this influence is greater in the aligned than in the misaligned condition. Relative to controls, the CP participants, both at a group and at an individual level, did not show holistic processing in the vertical composite task. There was also no difference in performance as a function of hemifield of the cued face half in the CP individuals, and this was true in the control participants, as well. The findings clearly confirm the deficit in holistic processing in CP and reveal the useful application of this novel experimental paradigm to this population and potentially to others as well.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tina T Liu
- Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA, USA ; Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA, USA
| | - Marlene Behrmann
- Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA, USA ; Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA, USA
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Lafontaine MP, Théoret H, Gosselin F, Lippé S. Transcranial direct current stimulation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex modulates repetition suppression to unfamiliar faces: an ERP study. PLoS One 2013; 8:e81721. [PMID: 24324721 PMCID: PMC3852506 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0081721] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/04/2013] [Accepted: 10/16/2013] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Repeated visual processing of an unfamiliar face suppresses neural activity in face-specific areas of the occipito-temporal cortex. This "repetition suppression" (RS) is a primitive mechanism involved in learning of unfamiliar faces, which can be detected through amplitude reduction of the N170 event-related potential (ERP). The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) exerts top-down influence on early visual processing. However, its contribution to N170 RS and learning of unfamiliar faces remains unclear. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) transiently increases or decreases cortical excitability, as a function of polarity. We hypothesized that DLPFC excitability modulation by tDCS would cause polarity-dependent modulations of N170 RS during encoding of unfamiliar faces. tDCS-induced N170 RS enhancement would improve long-term recognition reaction time (RT) and/or accuracy rates, whereas N170 RS impairment would compromise recognition ability. Participants underwent three tDCS conditions in random order at ∼72 hour intervals: right anodal/left cathodal, right cathodal/left anodal and sham. Immediately following tDCS conditions, an EEG was recorded during encoding of unfamiliar faces for assessment of P100 and N170 visual ERPs. The P3a component was analyzed to detect prefrontal function modulation. Recognition tasks were administered ∼72 hours following encoding. Results indicate the right anodal/left cathodal condition facilitated N170 RS and induced larger P3a amplitudes, leading to faster recognition RT. Conversely, the right cathodal/left anodal condition caused N170 amplitude and RTs to increase, and a delay in P3a latency. These data demonstrate that DLPFC excitability modulation can influence early visual encoding of unfamiliar faces, highlighting the importance of DLPFC in basic learning mechanisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marc Philippe Lafontaine
- Department of Psychology, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Canada
- Sainte-Justine University Hospital Research Center, Montréal, Canada
- * E-mail:
| | - Hugo Théoret
- Department of Psychology, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Canada
- Sainte-Justine University Hospital Research Center, Montréal, Canada
| | | | - Sarah Lippé
- Department of Psychology, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Canada
- Sainte-Justine University Hospital Research Center, Montréal, Canada
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Fox CJ, Iaria G, Duchaine BC, Barton JJS. Residual fMRI sensitivity for identity changes in acquired prosopagnosia. Front Psychol 2013; 4:756. [PMID: 24151479 PMCID: PMC3799008 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00756] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2013] [Accepted: 09/27/2013] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
While a network of cortical regions contribute to face processing, the lesions in acquired prosopagnosia are highly variable, and likely result in different combinations of spared and affected regions of this network. To assess the residual functional sensitivities of spared regions in prosopagnosia, we designed a rapid event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment that included pairs of faces with same or different identities and same or different expressions. By measuring the release from adaptation to these facial changes we determined the residual sensitivity of face-selective regions-of-interest. We tested three patients with acquired prosopagnosia, and all three of these patients demonstrated residual sensitivity for facial identity changes in surviving fusiform and occipital face areas of either the right or left hemisphere, but not in the right posterior superior temporal sulcus. The patients also showed some residual capabilities for facial discrimination with normal performance on the Benton Facial Recognition Test, but impaired performance on more complex tasks of facial discrimination. We conclude that fMRI can demonstrate residual processing of facial identity in acquired prosopagnosia, that this adaptation can occur in the same structures that show similar processing in healthy subjects, and further, that this adaptation may be related to behavioral indices of face perception.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christopher J Fox
- Departments of Medicine (Neurology) and Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of British Columbia Vancouver, BC, Canada
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20
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Weigelt S, Koldewyn K, Dilks DD, Balas B, McKone E, Kanwisher N. Domain-specific development of face memory but not face perception. Dev Sci 2013; 17:47-58. [DOI: 10.1111/desc.12089] [Citation(s) in RCA: 74] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/18/2012] [Accepted: 04/16/2013] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Sarah Weigelt
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Science; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; USA
- Department of Psychology; Ruhr-Universität Bochum; Germany
| | - Kami Koldewyn
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Science; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; USA
| | - Daniel D. Dilks
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Science; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; USA
| | - Benjamin Balas
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Science; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; USA
- Department of Psychology; North Dakota State University; USA
| | - Elinor McKone
- Department of Psychology; Australian National University; Australia
| | - Nancy Kanwisher
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Science; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; USA
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21
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Weigelt S, Koldewyn K, Kanwisher N. Face recognition deficits in autism spectrum disorders are both domain specific and process specific. PLoS One 2013; 8:e74541. [PMID: 24040276 PMCID: PMC3770641 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0074541] [Citation(s) in RCA: 45] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/10/2013] [Accepted: 08/05/2013] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Although many studies have reported face identity recognition deficits in autism spectrum disorders (ASD), two fundamental question remains: 1) Is this deficit "process specific" for face memory in particular, or does it extend to perceptual discrimination of faces as well? And 2) Is the deficit "domain specific" for faces, or is it found more generally for other social or even nonsocial stimuli? The answers to these questions are important both for understanding the nature of autism and its developmental etiology, and for understanding the functional architecture of face processing in the typical brain. Here we show that children with ASD are impaired (compared to age and IQ-matched typical children) in face memory, but not face perception, demonstrating process specificity. Further, we find no deficit for either memory or perception of places or cars, indicating domain specificity. Importantly, we further showed deficits in both the perception and memory of bodies, suggesting that the relevant domain of deficit may be social rather than specifically facial. These results provide a more precise characterization of the cognitive phenotype of autism and further indicate a functional dissociation between face memory and face perception.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah Weigelt
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Science and McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Department of Psychology, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany
| | - Kami Koldewyn
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Science and McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Nancy Kanwisher
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Science and McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
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22
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Kimchi R, Behrmann M, Avidan G, Amishav R. Perceptual separability of featural and configural information in congenital prosopagnosia. Cogn Neuropsychol 2013; 29:447-63. [DOI: 10.1080/02643294.2012.752723] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Ruth Kimchi
- a Department of Psychology , University of Haifa , Haifa , Israel
- d Institute of Information Processing and Decision Making , University of Haifa , Haifa , Israel
| | - Marlene Behrmann
- b Department of Psychology , Carnegie Mellon University , Pittsburgh , PA , USA
| | - Galia Avidan
- c Department of Psychology , Ben-Gurion University of the Negev , Beer-Sheva , Israel
| | - Rama Amishav
- d Institute of Information Processing and Decision Making , University of Haifa , Haifa , Israel
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Susilo T, Duchaine B. Advances in developmental prosopagnosia research. Curr Opin Neurobiol 2013; 23:423-9. [PMID: 23391526 DOI: 10.1016/j.conb.2012.12.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 136] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/14/2012] [Accepted: 12/31/2012] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
Abstract
Developmental prosopagnosia (DP) refers to face recognition deficits in the absence of brain damage. DP affects ∼2% of the population, and it often runs in families. DP studies have made considerable progress in identifying the cognitive and neural characteristics of the disorder. A key challenge is to develop a valid taxonomy of DP that will facilitate many aspects of research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tirta Susilo
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755, USA.
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24
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Schmalzl L, Zopf R, Williams MA. From head to toe: evidence for selective brain activation reflecting visual perception of whole individuals. Front Hum Neurosci 2012; 6:108. [PMID: 22557958 PMCID: PMC3340944 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2012.00108] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/13/2011] [Accepted: 04/11/2012] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Our ability to recognize other people's faces and bodies is crucial for our social interactions. Previous neuroimaging studies have repeatedly demonstrated the existence of brain areas that selectively respond to visually presented faces and bodies. In daily life, however, we see "whole" people and not just isolated faces and bodies, and the question remains of how information from these two categories of stimuli is integrated at a neural level. Are faces and bodies merely processed independently, or are there neural populations that actually code for whole individuals? In the current study we addressed this question using a functional magnetic resonance imaging adaptation paradigm involving the sequential presentation of visual stimuli depicting whole individuals. It is known that adaptation effects for a component of a stimulus only occur in neural populations that are sensitive to that particular component. The design of our experiment allowed us to measure adaptation effects occurring when either just the face, just the body, or both the face and the body of an individual were repeated. Crucially, we found novel evidence for the existence of neural populations in fusiform as well as extrastriate regions that showed selective adaptation for whole individuals, which could not be merely explained by the sum of adaptation for face and body respectively. The functional specificity of these neural populations is likely to support fast and accurate recognition and integration of information conveyed by both faces and bodies. Hence, they can be assumed to play an important role for identity as well as emotion recognition in everyday life.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura Schmalzl
- Brain, Body and Self Laboratory, Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institute Stockholm, Sweden
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25
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McKone E, Hall A, Pidcock M, Palermo R, Wilkinson RB, Rivolta D, Yovel G, Davis JM, O'Connor KB. Face ethnicity and measurement reliability affect face recognition performance in developmental prosopagnosia: evidence from the Cambridge Face Memory Test-Australian. Cogn Neuropsychol 2012; 28:109-46. [PMID: 22122116 DOI: 10.1080/02643294.2011.616880] [Citation(s) in RCA: 94] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/15/2022]
Abstract
The Cambridge Face Memory Test (CFMT, Duchaine & Nakayama, 2006) provides a validated format for testing novel face learning and has been a crucial instrument in the diagnosis of developmental prosopagnosia. Yet, some individuals who report everyday face recognition symptoms consistent with prosopagnosia, and are impaired on famous face tasks, perform normally on the CFMT. Possible reasons include measurement error, CFMT assessment of memory only at short delays, and a face set whose ethnicity is matched to only some Caucasian groups. We develop the "CFMT-Australian" (CFMT-Aus), which complements the CFMT-original by using ethnicity better matched to a different European subpopulation. Results confirm reliability (.88) and validity (convergent, divergent using cars, inversion effects). We show that face ethnicity within a race has subtle but clear effects on face processing even in normal participants (includes cross-over interaction for face ethnicity by perceiver country of origin in distinctiveness ratings). We show that CFMT-Aus clarifies diagnosis of prosopagnosia in 6 previously ambiguous cases. In 3 cases, this appears due to the better ethnic match to prosopagnosics. We also show that face memory at short (<3-min), 20-min, and 24-hr delays taps overlapping processes in normal participants. There is some suggestion that a form of prosopagnosia may exist that is long delay only and/or reflects failure to benefit from face repetition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elinor McKone
- Department of Psychology, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia.
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26
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Weigelt S, Koldewyn K, Kanwisher N. Face identity recognition in autism spectrum disorders: a review of behavioral studies. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2011; 36:1060-84. [PMID: 22212588 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2011.12.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 316] [Impact Index Per Article: 22.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/02/2011] [Revised: 11/23/2011] [Accepted: 12/14/2011] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
Face recognition--the ability to recognize a person from their facial appearance--is essential for normal social interaction. Face recognition deficits have been implicated in the most common disorder of social interaction: autism. Here we ask: is face identity recognition in fact impaired in people with autism? Reviewing behavioral studies we find no strong evidence for a qualitative difference in how facial identity is processed between those with and without autism: markers of typical face identity recognition, such as the face inversion effect, seem to be present in people with autism. However, quantitatively--i.e., how well facial identity is remembered or discriminated--people with autism perform worse than typical individuals. This impairment is particularly clear in face memory and in face perception tasks in which a delay intervenes between sample and test, and less so in tasks with no memory demand. Although some evidence suggests that this deficit may be specific to faces, further evidence on this question is necessary.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah Weigelt
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Science and McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA, USA.
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27
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Furl N, Garrido L, Dolan RJ, Driver J, Duchaine B. Fusiform gyrus face selectivity relates to individual differences in facial recognition ability. J Cogn Neurosci 2011; 23:1723-40. [PMID: 20617881 PMCID: PMC3322334 DOI: 10.1162/jocn.2010.21545] [Citation(s) in RCA: 146] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
Abstract
Regions of the occipital and temporal lobes, including a region in the fusiform gyrus (FG), have been proposed to constitute a "core" visual representation system for faces, in part because they show face selectivity and face repetition suppression. But recent fMRI studies of developmental prosopagnosics (DPs) raise questions about whether these measures relate to face processing skills. Although DPs manifest deficient face processing, most studies to date have not shown unequivocal reductions of functional responses in the proposed core regions. We scanned 15 DPs and 15 non-DP control participants with fMRI while employing factor analysis to derive behavioral components related to face identification or other processes. Repetition suppression specific to facial identities in FG or to expression in FG and STS did not show compelling relationships with face identification ability. However, we identified robust relationships between face selectivity and face identification ability in FG across our sample for several convergent measures, including voxel-wise statistical parametric mapping, peak face selectivity in individually defined "fusiform face areas" (FFAs), and anatomical extents (cluster sizes) of those FFAs. None of these measures showed associations with behavioral expression or object recognition ability. As a group, DPs had reduced face-selective responses in bilateral FFA when compared with non-DPs. Individual DPs were also more likely than non-DPs to lack expected face-selective activity in core regions. These findings associate individual differences in face processing ability with selectivity in core face processing regions. This confirms that face selectivity can provide a valid marker for neural mechanisms that contribute to face identification ability.
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Ewbank MP, Lawson RP, Henson RN, Rowe JB, Passamonti L, Calder AJ. Changes in "top-down" connectivity underlie repetition suppression in the ventral visual pathway. J Neurosci 2011; 31:5635-42. [PMID: 21490204 PMCID: PMC3759805 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.5013-10.2011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 82] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/24/2010] [Revised: 01/19/2011] [Accepted: 01/27/2011] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Repetition of the same stimulus leads to a reduction in neural activity known as repetition suppression (RS). In functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), RS is found for multiple object categories. One proposal is that RS reflects locally based "within-region" changes, such as neural fatigue. Thus, if a given region shows RS across changes in stimulus size or view, then it is inferred to hold size- or view-invariant representations. An alternative hypothesis characterizes RS as a consequence of "top-down" between-region modulation. Differentiating between these accounts is central to the correct interpretation of fMRI RS data. It is also unknown whether the same mechanisms underlie RS to identical stimuli and RS across changes in stimulus size or view. Using fMRI, we investigated RS within a body-sensitive network in human visual cortex comprising the extrastriate body area (EBA) and the fusiform body area (FBA). Both regions showed RS to identical images of the same body that was unaffected by changes in body size or view. Dynamic causal modeling demonstrated that changes in backward, top-down (FBA-to-EBA) effective connectivity play a critical role in RS. Furthermore, only repetition of the identical image showed additional changes in forward connectivity (EBA-to-FBA). These results suggest that RS is driven by changes in top-down modulation, whereas the contribution of "feedforward" changes in connectivity is dependent on the precise nature of the repetition. Our results challenge previous interpretations regarding the underlying nature of neural representations made using fMRI RS paradigms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael P. Ewbank
- Medical Research Council, Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge CB2 7EF, United Kingdom
| | - Rebecca P. Lawson
- Medical Research Council, Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge CB2 7EF, United Kingdom
| | - Richard N. Henson
- Medical Research Council, Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge CB2 7EF, United Kingdom
| | - James B. Rowe
- Medical Research Council, Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge CB2 7EF, United Kingdom
- Department of Clinical Neurosciences and
- Behavioural and Clinical Neurosciences Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1TN, United Kingdom, and
| | - Luca Passamonti
- Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Unità Ricerca Neuroimmagini, 88100 Catanzaro, Italy
| | - Andrew J. Calder
- Medical Research Council, Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge CB2 7EF, United Kingdom
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Stollhoff R, Jost J, Elze T, Kennerknecht I. Deficits in long-term recognition memory reveal dissociated subtypes in congenital prosopagnosia. PLoS One 2011; 6:e15702. [PMID: 21283572 PMCID: PMC3026793 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0015702] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/26/2010] [Accepted: 11/22/2010] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
The study investigates long-term recognition memory in congenital prosopagnosia (CP), a lifelong impairment in face identification that is present from birth. Previous investigations of processing deficits in CP have mostly relied on short-term recognition tests to estimate the scope and severity of individual deficits. We firstly report on a controlled test of long-term (one year) recognition memory for faces and objects conducted with a large group of participants with CP. Long-term recognition memory is significantly impaired in eight CP participants (CPs). In all but one case, this deficit was selective to faces and didn't extend to intra-class recognition of object stimuli. In a test of famous face recognition, long-term recognition deficits were less pronounced, even after accounting for differences in media consumption between controls and CPs. Secondly, we combined test results on long-term and short-term recognition of faces and objects, and found a large heterogeneity in severity and scope of individual deficits. Analysis of the observed heterogeneity revealed a dissociation of CP into subtypes with a homogeneous phenotypical profile. Thirdly, we found that among CPs self-assessment of real-life difficulties, based on a standardized questionnaire, and experimentally assessed face recognition deficits are strongly correlated. Our results demonstrate that controlled tests of long-term recognition memory are needed to fully assess face recognition deficits in CP. Based on controlled and comprehensive experimental testing, CP can be dissociated into subtypes with a homogeneous phenotypical profile. The CP subtypes identified align with those found in prosopagnosia caused by cortical lesions; they can be interpreted with respect to a hierarchical neural system for face perception.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rainer Stollhoff
- Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.
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30
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Susilo T, McKone E, Dennett H, Darke H, Palermo R, Hall A, Pidcock M, Dawel A, Jeffery L, Wilson CE, Rhodes G. Face recognition impairments despite normal holistic processing and face space coding: Evidence from a case of developmental prosopagnosia. Cogn Neuropsychol 2010; 27:636-64. [DOI: 10.1080/02643294.2011.613372] [Citation(s) in RCA: 43] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/15/2022]
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31
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Garrido L, Furl N, Draganski B, Weiskopf N, Stevens J, Tan GCY, Driver J, Dolan RJ, Duchaine B. Voxel-based morphometry reveals reduced grey matter volume in the temporal cortex of developmental prosopagnosics. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2010; 132:3443-55. [PMID: 19887506 PMCID: PMC2792372 DOI: 10.1093/brain/awp271] [Citation(s) in RCA: 155] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
Individuals with developmental prosopagnosia exhibit severe and lasting difficulties in recognizing faces despite the absence of apparent brain abnormalities. We used voxel-based morphometry to investigate whether developmental prosopagnosics show subtle neuroanatomical differences from controls. An analysis based on segmentation of T1-weighted images from 17 developmental prosopagnosics and 18 matched controls revealed that they had reduced grey matter volume in the right anterior inferior temporal lobe and in the superior temporal sulcus/middle temporal gyrus bilaterally. In addition, a voxel-based morphometry analysis based on the segmentation of magnetization transfer parameter maps showed that developmental prosopagnosics also had reduced grey matter volume in the right middle fusiform gyrus and the inferior temporal gyrus. Multiple regression analyses relating three distinct behavioural component scores, derived from a principal component analysis, to grey matter volume revealed an association between a component related to facial identity and grey matter volume in the left superior temporal sulcus/middle temporal gyrus plus the right middle fusiform gyrus/inferior temporal gyrus. Grey matter volume in the lateral occipital cortex was associated with component scores related to object recognition tasks. Our results demonstrate that developmental prosopagnosics have reduced grey matter volume in several regions known to respond selectively to faces and provide new evidence that integrity of these areas relates to face recognition ability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lúcia Garrido
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Alexandra House, 17 Queen Square, London WC1N3AR, UK.
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32
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Wilson CE, Palermo R, Schmalzl L, Brock J. Specificity of impaired facial identity recognition in children with suspected developmental prosopagnosia. Cogn Neuropsychol 2010; 27:30-45. [DOI: 10.1080/02643294.2010.490207] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
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Mur M, Ruff DA, Bodurka J, Bandettini PA, Kriegeskorte N. Face-identity change activation outside the face system: "release from adaptation" may not always indicate neuronal selectivity. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2010; 20:2027-42. [PMID: 20051364 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhp272] [Citation(s) in RCA: 58] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022]
Abstract
Face recognition is a complex cognitive process that requires distinguishable neuronal representations of individual faces. Previous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies using the "fMRI-adaptation" technique have suggested the existence of face-identity representations in face-selective regions, including the fusiform face area (FFA). Here, we present face-identity adaptation findings that are not well explained in terms of face-identity representations. We performed blood-oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) fMRI measurements, while participants viewed familiar faces that were shown repeatedly throughout the experiment. We found decreased activation for repeated faces in face-selective regions, as expected based on previous studies. However, we found similar effects in regions that are not face-selective, including the parahippocampal place area (PPA) and early visual cortex (EVC). These effects were present for exact-image (same view and lighting) as well as different-image (different view and/or lighting) repetition, but more widespread for exact-image repetition. Given the known functional properties of PPA and EVC, it appears unlikely that they contain domain-specific face-identity representations. Alternative interpretations include general attentional effects and carryover of activation from connected regions. These results remind us that fMRI stimulus-change effects can have a range of causes and do not provide conclusive evidence for a neuronal representation of the changed stimulus property.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marieke Mur
- Section on Functional Imaging Methods, Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
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34
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Duchaine B, Murray H, Turner M, White S, Garrido L. Normal social cognition in developmental prosopagnosia. Cogn Neuropsychol 2009; 26:620-34. [DOI: 10.1080/02643291003616145] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
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Bowles DC, McKone E, Dawel A, Duchaine B, Palermo R, Schmalzl L, Rivolta D, Wilson CE, Yovel G. Diagnosing prosopagnosia: Effects of ageing, sex, and participant–stimulus ethnic match on the Cambridge Face Memory Test and Cambridge Face Perception Test. Cogn Neuropsychol 2009; 26:423-55. [DOI: 10.1080/02643290903343149] [Citation(s) in RCA: 288] [Impact Index Per Article: 18.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
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Weigelt S, Muckli L, Kohler A. Functional magnetic resonance adaptation in visual neuroscience. Rev Neurosci 2009; 19:363-80. [PMID: 19145990 DOI: 10.1515/revneuro.2008.19.4-5.363] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a powerful non-invasive tool to investigate neuronal processing. In the last ten years a new methodological approach in the field of fMRI has been developed: fMRI adaptation. It has been found that the repetition of a stimulus leads to a decrease of the fMRI signal in the brain region that processes this stimulus. The phenomenon has been related to neuronal adaptation effects found in single-cell recordings. Since the first experiments that observed fMRI-adaptation effects, the method has been applied extensively to study various visual phenomena, such as the perception of motion, shape, objects, and orientation. The great advantage of fMRI adaptation is that it allows assessing the functional response profile of a brain region at a subvoxel level. The purpose of the current review is to evaluate the different experimental approaches used to elicit fMRI-adaptation effects. We discuss papers published in the domain of visual neuroscience that made use of fMRI-adaptation paradigms. In doing so, we focus on methodological considerations concerning experimental design, stimulus presentation and influencing factors such as awareness and attention. In the course of this review, we show that different fMRI-adaptation designs capture heterogeneous neuronal adaptation effects. As the picture of the mechanisms underlying neuronal adaptation changes from simple synaptic fatigue to complex network interactions, the concept of fMRI adaptation has to be redefined.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah Weigelt
- Max Planck Institute for Brain Research, Department of Neurophysiology, Frankfurt/Main, Germany.
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Van den Stock J, van de Riet WAC, Righart R, de Gelder B. Neural correlates of perceiving emotional faces and bodies in developmental prosopagnosia: an event-related fMRI-study. PLoS One 2008; 3:e3195. [PMID: 18797499 PMCID: PMC2527524 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0003195] [Citation(s) in RCA: 56] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/30/2008] [Accepted: 08/20/2008] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Many people experience transient difficulties in recognizing faces but only a small number of them cannot recognize their family members when meeting them unexpectedly. Such face blindness is associated with serious problems in everyday life. A better understanding of the neuro-functional basis of impaired face recognition may be achieved by a careful comparison with an equally unique object category and by a adding a more realistic setting involving neutral faces as well facial expressions. We used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the neuro-functional basis of perceiving faces and bodies in three developmental prosopagnosics (DP) and matched healthy controls. Our approach involved materials consisting of neutral faces and bodies as well as faces and bodies expressing fear or happiness. The first main result is that the presence of emotional information has a different effect in the patient vs. the control group in the fusiform face area (FFA). Neutral faces trigger lower activation in the DP group, compared to the control group, while activation for facial expressions is the same in both groups. The second main result is that compared to controls, DPs have increased activation for bodies in the inferior occipital gyrus (IOG) and for neutral faces in the extrastriate body area (EBA), indicating that body and face sensitive processes are less categorically segregated in DP. Taken together our study shows the importance of using naturalistic emotional stimuli for a better understanding of developmental face deficits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jan Van den Stock
- Laboratory of Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands
- Old Age Psychiatry Department, University Hospitals Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Wim A. C. van de Riet
- Laboratory of Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands
| | - Ruthger Righart
- Laboratory of Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands
| | - Beatrice de Gelder
- Laboratory of Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands
- Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, Massachusetts, United States of America
- * E-mail:
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