Comparing face patch systems in macaques and humans

Abstract

Face recognition is of central importance for primate social behavior. In both humans and macaques, the visual analysis of faces is supported by a set of specialized face areas. The precise organization of these areas and the correspondence between individual macaque and human face-selective areas are debated. Here, we examined the organization of face-selective regions across the temporal lobe in a large number of macaque and human subjects. Macaques showed 6 regions of face-selective cortex arranged in a stereotypical pattern along the temporal lobe. Human subjects showed, in addition to 3 reported face areas (the occipital, fusiform, and superior temporal sulcus face areas), a face-selective area located anterior to the fusiform face area, in the anterior collateral sulcus. These results suggest a closer anatomical correspondence between macaque and human face-processing systems than previously realized.face processing ͉ fMRI ͉ evolution ͉ form perception ͉ vision F or primates as social animals, faces are immensely important stimuli, carrying a wealth of social information. Given the paramount importance of face recognition for primates, the underlying neural mechanisms must have been subject to the highest selective pressure through the course of evolution (1, 2). As a consequence, a common primate face recognition system may exist, providing the basic scaffold around which speciesspecific specializations may have then evolved.In humans, extensive behavioral and neurological evidence suggests that specialized mechanisms exist for processing faces (3, 4). This notion is supported by functional imaging experiments showing several face-selective areas in the temporal lobe, including the fusiform face area (FFA), the occipital face area (OFA), and a face area in the superior temporal sulcus (STS-FA) (5). Furthermore, evidence has been put forward that these areas have different functional specializations, suggesting that the OFA is involved in processing face parts (6), the STS-FA in processing changeable aspects such as gaze direction (7), and the FFA in processing identity (8, 9). Thus, the human faceprocessing system seems to be organized around 3 specialized face areas (10).In macaque monkeys, the existence of face-selective cortical areas, so called ''face patches,'' was demonstrated by fMRI (11,12). Tsao et al. (11) reported 3 regions of face-selective cortex in inferotemporal (IT) cortex, organized along an anteriorposterior axis. This finding immediately raised the question of how macaque face patches relate to those of humans and, more generally, whether there is a common functional organization for face processing in primates. By computationally stretching the cortical surface of the macaque brain over the human cortical surface, the macaque middle face patch was found to lie quite close to the human FFA (11). The human FFA and macaque middle face patch were also the largest within each species.Although this spatial correspondence analysis is, of course, a far cry from demonstrating homology, it rais...

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The neuropsychology of face perception: beyond simple dissociations and functional selectivity

“…Recent research has also shown a close anatomical correspondence in the cortical regions selective for faces between macaques and humans [30]. Functional neuroimaging studies have confirmed not only that monkeys have a small number of discrete face-selective regions similar in relative size to those in humans [41,42], but also that the great majority of neurons in at least one of these face-selective regions (one of the face patches in STS) are themselves face selective [43].…”

“…[28,29]; for a review, see [5]). It is probable that there are other regions in more anterior regions of the human brain that are responsive to face stimuli, similar to the 'face patches' that have been discovered in macaque monkeys [30,31].…”