Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Individual faces elicit distinct response patterns in human anterior temporal cortex

Kriegeskorte N, Formisano E, Sorger B, Goebel R.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2007 Dec 11

Visual face identification requires distinguishing between thousands of faces we know. This computational feat involves a network of brain regions including the fusiform face area (FFA) and anterior inferotemporal cortex (aIT), whose roles in the process are not well understood. Here, we provide the first demonstration that it is possible to discriminate cortical response patterns elicited by individual face images with high-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Response patterns elicited by the face images were distinct in aIT but not in the FFA. Individual-level face information is likely to be present in both regions, but our data suggest that it is more pronounced in aIT. One interpretation is that the FFA detects faces and engages aIT for identification.

PMID: 18077383

1 comment:

Donald H. Marks said...

The work of Kriegeskorte et al “Individual faces elicit distinct response patterns in human anterior temporal cortex,” PNAS 2007 Dec 18, is an interesting confirmatory study to prior breakthrough concepts and enabling research by DH Marks et al (Multidimensional Representation of Concepts as Cognitive Engrams in the Human Brain. The Internet Journal of Neurology [peer-reviewed serial on the Internet]. 2007. Volume 6, Number 1). This conceptual work of DH Marks envisions a veritable Rosetta Stone, allowing two-way movement between actual imaging data and a database of activation maps from neuroimaging studies. A wide range of faces, objects, places and concepts have unique activation map correlates, which are termed Cognitive Engrams. The presence of specific Cognitive Engrams within neuroimaging data should allow the identification of the actual thought (www.Cognitive-Eng.org) which led to that brain activation – a form of applied mind reading.