Covert visual attention modulates face-specific activity in the human fusiform gyrus: fMRI study
Covert visual attention modulates face-specific activity in the human fusiform gyrus: fMRI study
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DOI：
10.1152/jn.1998.79.3.1574
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发表时间：
1998-03-01
影响因子：
2.5
通讯作者：
Driver, J
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Wojciulik, E;Kanwisher, N;Driver, J
有几条证据表明，面孔在灵长类动物的视觉系统中经历了专门的处理。已经声称，无论何时呈现其触发输入，用于这种生物重要刺激的专用模块都以强制方式运行。然而，在这种情况下，对激活刺激的隐蔽注意力的可能作用从未被研究过。我们使用功能磁共振成像来测试人类梭形面部区域FFA中的面部特异性活动是否受到隐蔽注意力的调制。FFA首先在每个受试者中被单独识别为腹侧枕颞区，该区域对被动中央观看下的视觉呈现事实的反应比对其他视觉对象更强烈。然后，这一区域被用作感兴趣区域，在该区域内，使用主动任务和非常不同的刺激集独立地测试注意调节。受试者观看简要显示，每个包括两个周边面和两个周边屋(全部同时呈现)。他们在两张脸或两座房子上执行匹配任务，同时保持中央注视，以等同于不同任务的视网膜刺激。在右半球和左半球预定义的FFA中，面部匹配期间的信号强度都比房屋匹配时的信号强度更强。这些结果表明，当刺激出现在注意力焦点之外(而不是关注焦点内部)时，面部特有的梭形活动会减少。尽管FFA具有模块化的性质(即其功能特异性和解剖定位)，但该区域的人脸加工仍然依赖于自愿的注意。
Several lines of evidence demonstrate that faces undergo specialized processing within the primate visual system. It has been claimed that dedicated modules for such biologically significant stimuli operate in a mandatory fashion whenever their triggering input is presented. However, the possible role of covert attention to the activating stimulus has never been examined for such cases. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to test whether face-specific activity in the human fusiform face area FFA is modulated by covert attention. The FFA was first identified individually in each subject as the ventral occipitotemporal region that responded more strongly to visually presented facts than to other visual objects under passive central viewing. This then served as the region of interest within which attentional modulation was tested independently, using active tasks and a very different stimulus set. Subjects viewed brief displays each comprising two peripheral faces and two peripheral houses (all presented simultaneously). They performed a matching task on either the two faces or the two houses, while maintaining central fixation to equate retinal stimulation across tasks. Signal intensity was reliably stronger during face-matching than house matching in both right-and left-hemisphere predefined FFAs. These results show that face-specific fusiform activity is reduced when stimuli appear outside ( vs. inside) the focus of attention. Despite the modular nature of the FFA (i.e., its functional specificity and anatomic localization), face processing in this region nonetheless depends on voluntary attention.