Functional neuroanatomy of developmental changes in face processing

描述（由申请人提供）：人类在一生中识别无数面孔的非凡能力多年来一直吸引着科学家的注意。即使是新生儿也会调谐到并注意到人类的面孔。然而，成年人似乎在记忆和区分面孔方面都比儿童更熟练，这表明面孔识别存在一定程度的可塑性，可能会受到经验的影响。面部处理的一个方面似乎经历了发展变化，即感知面部特征结构的细微差异，这是唯一识别一个人所不可或缺的属性。这种类型的处理随着年龄的增长而改善，并继续发展到青春期，而面部识别的其他方面似乎发展得更早，甚至在婴儿期。以前的研究主要集中在从行为的角度来发展这些能力，但很少有研究已经检查了大脑的基础擦除识别机制。了解正常发育过程中的大脑基础擦除识别对于理解为什么在某些发育障碍中，如自闭症或先天性面容失认症，大脑不会受到类似面部暴露的影响至关重要。在本提案中，功能性磁共振成像（fMRI）将被用作大脑成像工具，以研究正常健康的人类志愿者从6岁到成年的认知能力的发展。该提案侧重于面部识别的几个方面，以确定哪些机制随着年龄的增长而改善，哪些机制在整个发展过程中相对稳定。功能磁共振成像是理想的回答这样的发展问题，由于其非侵入性的性质和最小的风险。鉴于迄今为止很少有研究这样做，这项提案的发现将在建立面部识别的正常大脑发育模式方面不可或缺。此外，功能磁共振成像可以揭示大规模的功能连接模式之间的大脑区域参与面部处理和本建议将调查是否连接模式进行发展重组。这条调查线对于建立一个基线来解释面部识别困难的个体的大脑连接模式非常重要。最终，这些数据可以为发育障碍的潜在治疗或干预提供信息，消除处理过程，并帮助恢复这些个体社会行为的重要方面。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The remarkable capacity that humans have to recognize countless faces over a lifetime has captured the attention of scientists for years. Even newborn infants are tuned into and attend to the human face. However, adults appear to be more skilled than children in both remembering and differentiating faces, indicating that there is a certain degree of plasticity in face recognition that may be affected by experience. One aspect of face processing that appears to undergo developmental change is perceiving subtle differences in the configuration of the features of a face, a property that is integral to uniquely identifying a person. This type of processing improves with age and continues to develop well into adolescence whereas other aspects of face recognition appear to develop much earlier, even in infancy. Previous research has focused on the development of these capacities from a behavioral perspective, but little research has examined the brain bases efface recognition mechanisms. Understanding the brain basis efface recognition during normal development is of utmost importance in understanding why the brain is not influenced by similar exposure to faces in some developmental disorders, such as autism or congenital prosopagnosia. In the present proposal, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) will be used as a brain imaging tool to study the development efface recognition capacities from age 6 to adulthood, in normal, healthy human volunteers. This proposal focuses on several aspects of face recognition to determine which mechanisms improve with age and which mechanisms are relatively stable across development. fMRI is ideal for answering such developmental questions due to its non-invasive nature and minimal risks. The findings from this proposal will be integral in establishing the normal pattern of brain development for face recognition, given that few studies have done so to date. Moreover, fMRI can reveal large-scale functional connectivity patterns among brain regions involved in face processing and the present proposal will investigate whether connectivity patterns undergo developmental reorganization. This line of inquiry is important for establishing a baseline to interpret brain connectivity patterns in individuals with difficulties in face recognition. Ultimately, such data can then inform potential treatments or interventions for developmental disorders efface processing and help restore an important aspect of social behavior to these individuals.