fMRI of neural information processing of face perception

描述（由申请人提供）：人类视觉人脸识别的非凡能力是社会互动和沟通的基石。然而，许多精神和神经系统疾病损害了这种关键能力。规范性面孔知觉的行为特征是“整体”加工（整体大于特征之和）和“面孔空间”表征（一种将一张面孔与另一张面孔的相似性联系起来的隐喻坐标系统）。神经影像学研究已经确定了大脑皮层区域对面部刺激的各个方面做出反应，但尚不清楚面部感知的基本行为特性是如何从神经系统的计算中产生的。拟议中的实验将使用fMRI将面部处理行为的定量测量与神经活动的区域测量相结合，以提供这种理解。在目标1中，识别了面部感知的“信息处理”模型的神经相关性。面部刺激的整体机制的选择性、视觉特征的并行处理以及系统在增加工作量的情况下矛盾地提高性能的能力都是将根据神经过程来描述的行为特征。在目标2中，使用视觉适应方法来测试神经元群体将面部明确表示为与平均面部的偏差的想法，并且神经表征被锐化以允许在典型出现的面部之间进行区分。在目标3中，根据这些神经机制研究了培训和专业知识的效果。用人工刺激集训练可以诱导类似面部的神经处理吗？这些研究的结果具有康复和训练，以改善视觉功能的影响，和开发的方法可用于表征潜在的信息处理障碍的患者有困难的面部知觉。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The remarkable human capacity for visual face recognition is a cornerstone of social interaction and communication. Numerous psychiatric and neurological disorders, however, impair this critical ability. The behavioral signature of normative face perception is "holistic" processing (the whole is greater than the sum of the features) and "face-space" representation (a metaphorical coordinate system that relates the similarity of one face to another). Neuroimaging studies have identified cortical brain regions that respond to aspects of face stimuli, but it is not clear how the fundamental behavioral properties of face perception arise from the computations of neural systems. The proposed experiments will unite quantitative measures of face processing behavior with regional measures of neural activity using fMRI to provide this understanding. In Aim 1, the neural correlates of an "information processing" model of face perception are identified. The selectivity of holistic mechanisms for face stimuli, the parallel processing of visual features and the ability of the system to paradoxically improve performance with an increased workload are all behavioral features that will be described in terms of neural processes. In Aim 2, a visual adaptation method is used to test the idea that populations of neurons represent faces explicitly as deviations from an average face, and that neural representations are sharpened to allow discrimination between typical-appearing faces. In Aim 3, the effect of training and expertise is studied in terms of these neural mechanisms. Is it the case that training with an artificial stimulus set can induce face-like neural processing? The results of these studies have implications for rehabilitation and training to improve visual function, and the methods developed can be used to characterize the underlying information processing impairment in patients who have difficulty with face perception.