The occipital face area is causally involved in the formation of identity-specific face representations
The occipital face area is causally involved in the formation of identity-specific face representations
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DOI：
10.1007/s00429-017-1467-2
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发表时间：
2017-12-01
影响因子：
3.1
通讯作者：
Kovacs, Gyula
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Ambrus, Geza Gergely;Dotzer, Maria;Kovacs, Gyula
经颅磁刺激（TMS）和神经影像学研究表明，右枕面区（rOFA）在早期面部特征处理中起着重要作用。然而，在多大程度上rOFA是必要的面部身份编码一直不太清楚。本研究采用状态依赖的经颅磁刺激模式，即刺激优先促进由较不活跃的神经群编码的属性，以研究rOFA在面部感知中的作用，特别是在与图像无关的身份处理中的作用。参与者对著名和未知的目标面孔进行熟悉度决策任务，之前短暂（200毫秒）或更长（3500毫秒）暴露于不同身份的图像（DiffID），相同身份的另一张图像（SameID），相同图像（SameIMG）或傅里叶随机噪声模式（噪声），而rOFA或顶点作为对照受到单脉冲TMS刺激。引人注目的是，对rOFA的TMS消除了SameID优于DiffID条件的优势，从而破坏了特定于身份的启动，而不影响特定于图像的启动（SameIMG比SameID的性能更好）。我们的研究结果表明，rOFA的作用不仅限于低级特征处理，而且强调其在图像无关的面部身份处理和身份特异性记忆痕迹的形成中的作用。
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and neuroimaging studies suggest a role of the right occipital face area (rOFA) in early facial feature processing. However, the degree to which rOFA is necessary for the encoding of facial identity has been less clear. Here we used a state-dependent TMS paradigm, where stimulation preferentially facilitates attributes encoded by less active neural populations, to investigate the role of the rOFA in face perception and specifically in image-independent identity processing. Participants performed a familiarity decision task for famous and unknown target faces, preceded by brief (200 ms) or longer (3500 ms) exposures to primes which were either an image of a different identity (DiffID), another image of the same identity (SameID), the same image (SameIMG), or a Fourier-randomized noise pattern (NOISE) while either the rOFA or the vertex as control was stimulated by single-pulse TMS. Strikingly, TMS to the rOFA eliminated the advantage of SameID over DiffID condition, thereby disrupting identity-specific priming, while leaving image-specific priming (better performance for SameIMG vs. SameID) unaffected. Our results suggest that the role of rOFA is not limited to low-level feature processing, and emphasize its role in image-independent facial identity processing and the formation of identity-specific memory traces.