Neural correlates of maturation of face processing

面孔知觉对社会交往和发展至关重要，它经历了一个长期的成熟过程，一直持续到青少年。然而，很少有人知道的成熟的神经或心理过程，支持在儿童的面孔知觉。在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，斯坦福大学的Kalanit Grill-spector博士和她的同事将进行一项研究计划，该计划将使用尖端的神经成像工具（高分辨率功能性磁共振成像或fMRI）和行为方法来阐明学龄儿童在涉及的心理过程、潜在神经系统的发展和他们的关系。对成人参与者进行的成像研究揭示了人类视觉皮层中的面部选择区域，其活动与受试者在面部感知任务中的表现相关。这些发现支持了面部选择皮层在成人面部知觉中的关键作用。 目前的项目将研究面孔知觉的成熟是否包括面孔选择皮层的成熟，或一般的视觉皮层。行为测量将与功能磁共振成像相结合，以研究视觉和面孔选择皮层的成熟如何影响面部处理的特定阶段。例如，这些研究将检查儿童在基本视觉任务上的表现是否与成人不同，例如对图像（人脸，汽车等）进行分类，儿童识别特定个体的能力是否较低，儿童面孔与成人面孔的表现是否不同。这项研究很重要，因为它将为理解儿童视觉感知发展的基本神经机制提供急需的基础。理解正常成熟对于理解许多涉及视觉感知缺陷的学习障碍和包括视觉感知改变的发育障碍（如威廉姆斯综合征和自闭症）也至关重要。

Face perception is critical for social interaction and development, and it undergoes a prolonged maturation that last until the teens. However, little is known about the maturation of the neural or psychological processes that support face perception in children. With support from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Kalanit Grill-spector and her colleagues at Stanford University will conduct a program of research that will use cutting-edge neuroimaging tools (high resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging or fMRI) and behavioral methods to elucidate the maturation of face processing in school age children in terms of the psychological processes involved, the development of the underlying neural systems, and their relation. Imaging studies conducted with adult participants have revealed face-selective regions in the human visual cortex whose activity is correlated with subjects' performance in face perception tasks. These findings support a key role for face-selective cortex in face perception in adults. The current project will examine whether the maturation of face perception involves maturation of face-selective cortex specifically, or visual cortex generally. Behavioral measures will be combined with fMRI to investigate how the maturation of visual and face-selective cortex affects specific stages of face processing. For example, the studies will examine whether children's performance is different than adults on basic visual tasks such as classifying images (face, car, etc.), whether children's performance is lower for identifying specific individuals and whether performance differs for faces of children vs. faces of adults. This research is important because it will provide a much needed foundation for understanding the basic neural mechanisms of the development of visual perception in children. Understanding normal maturation is also crucial for understanding many learning disabilities that involve deficits in visual perception and developmental disorders that include altered visual perception (such as Williams Syndrome and autism).