Development of Specialized Neural Networks for Face Recognition Expertise

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The ability to process faces is of utmost importance for individuals to function adaptively, and early deficits can be associated with social and interpersonal difficulties (e.g., autism, prosopagnosia). Behavioral studies show a protracted trajectory in the typical development of face processing. However, fMRI studies are needed to identify its underlying neural network. Behavioral studies show the importance of experience in the development of face recognition evident in children's superior recognition of own-race than other-race faces. The proposed research capitalizes on this phenomenon by using fMRI to examine the development of the face processing system and differential recruitment of neural networks as a function of face race. The long-term goal of this research is to examine the functional development of brain regions underlying face processing expertise in typically developing children. A handful of studies with adults suggest distinct brain networks recruited for own- and other-race faces. The mentored research described here was the first to examine the development of these networks. Functional connectivity analysis revealed a number of distinct networks of brain regions showing greater activation for other- than for own-race faces in both children and adults. Developmental changes in face-selectivity were more pronounced in a more active race categorization task than in a relatively passive viewing condition. An examination of face-selectivity in the fusiform gyrus, as well as whole-brain results and functional connectivity analysis collectively suggest that recruitment of select brain regions in response to race is modulated by task demands in different ways in children and adults. The R00 phase will examine age-related changes in network connectivity as a function of face race familiarity using EEG with children as young as 5 years of age. It will also examine changes in face scanning and the emergence of a specialized neural network shaped by experimentally-induced experience with a novel category of face race to reveal i) how experience produces face scanning optimal to other-face recognition ii) how experience changes the composition and organization of a neural network in the process of acquiring expertise, and ii) how the path to neural network specialization might vary with age.