fMRI of neural information processing of face perception

描述(申请人提供)：人类非凡的视觉人脸识别能力是社交和交流的基石。然而，许多精神和神经疾病削弱了这种批判能力。规范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(将一个面孔与另一个面孔的相似性联系起来的隐喻坐标系)。神经成像研究已经确定了对面部刺激做出反应的大脑皮层区域，但尚不清楚面部感知的基本行为特征是如何从神经系统的计算中产生的。拟议的实验将使用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，以提供这一理解。在目标1中，识别了人脸知觉的“信息处理”模型的神经关联。面部刺激整体机制的选择性，视觉特征的并行处理，以及系统随着工作负荷的增加而矛盾地提高性能的能力，这些都是行为特征，将从神经过程的角度进行描述。在目标2中，使用视觉适应方法来测试这样的想法，即神经元群体明确地将面孔表示为与平均面孔的偏差，并且神经表示被锐化以允许区分典型面孔。在目标3中，从这些神经机制的角度研究了训练和专业知识的效果。用人工刺激集训练可以诱导面孔样神经处理，这是真的吗？这些研究的结果对改善视觉功能的康复和训练具有指导意义，所开发的方法可以用来表征面部感知困难患者潜在的信息处理障碍。

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.