From single cells to social perception

Barraclough, Nick E.; Perrett, David I.

doi:10.1098/rstb.2010.0352

Cited by 40 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 114 publications

(184 reference statements)

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“…In fact, our findings present the best evidence yet of such a division of labor between identifiable nodes in the macaque brain, opening the door to further characterization of putative static and dynamic streams by electrophysiological and causal approaches. This could ultimately elucidate how the myriad signals conveyed by faces are given meaning by the brain [38, 39] at neuron and network levels. In this way, the specializations for facial motion within the areas described here provide a concrete anatomical framework for investigating both the computations that extract and abstract from facial dynamics and, more generally, the interrelated neural representations of form and motion.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contrasting Specializations for Facial Motion within the Macaque Face-Processing System

2015

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SUMMARY Facial motion transmits rich and ethologically vital information [1, 2], but how the brain interprets this complex signal is poorly understood. Facial form is analyzed by anatomically distinct face patches in the macaque brain [3, 4], and facial motion activates these patches and surrounding areas [5, 6]. Yet it is not known whether facial motion is processed by its own distinct and specialized neural machinery, and if so, what that machinery’s organization might be. To address these questions, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to monitor the brain activity of macaque monkeys while they viewed low- and high-level motion and form stimuli. We found that, beyond classical motion areas and the known face patch system, moving faces recruited a heretofore-unrecognized face patch. Although all face patches displayed distinctive selectivity for face motion over object motion, only two face patches preferred naturally moving faces, while three others preferred randomized, rapidly varying sequences of facial form. This functional divide was anatomically specific, segregating dorsal from ventral face patches, thereby revealing a new organizational principle of the macaque face-processing system.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contrasting Specializations for Facial Motion within the Macaque Face-Processing System

2015

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“…This picture suggests a limited contribution of the amygdala to face processing: all its face selectivity might be explained by the inputs from face-selective cortical regions. Also it is commonly believed that the large receptive fields of the neurons that provide input to the amygdala would result in visual receptive fields of amygdala neurons that are not spatially restricted (Barraclough and Perrett, 2011; Boussaoud et al, 1991; Gross et al, 1969). It has been proposed that the amygdala responds to faces even when they are not attended (Vuilleumier et al, 2001) or consciously perceived (Tamietto and de Gelder, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fixations Gate Species-Specific Responses to Free Viewing of Faces in the Human and Macaque Amygdala

et al. 2017

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Neurons in the primate amygdala respond prominently to faces. This implicates the amygdala in the processing of socially significant stimuli, yet its contribution to social perception remains poorly understood. We evaluated the representation of faces in the primate amygdala during naturalistic conditions by recording from both human-and macaque amygdala neurons during free viewing of identical arrays of images with concurrent eye tracking. Neurons responded to faces only when they were fixated, suggesting that neuronal activity was gated by visual attention. Further experiments in humans utilizing covert attention confirmed this hypothesis. In both species, the majority of face-selective neurons preferred faces of conspecifics, a bias also seen behaviorally in first fixation preferences. Response latencies, relative to fixation onset, were shortest for conspecific-selective neurons, and were ~100ms shorter in monkeys compared to humans. This argues that attention to faces gates amygdala responses, which in turn prioritize species-typical information for further processing.

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“…Bridging the neuroscientific and comparative approaches, Barraclough & Perrett [13] present a review of the cellular coding of faces in non-human primates. A large amount of research on monkey neurophysiology underpins models of face perception, explanations of perceptual after-effects from viewing particular types of faces and interpretations of human neuroimaging.…”

Section: Facial Cues As Social Signalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The many faces of research on face perception

Little

Jones

DeBruine

2011

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Face perception is fundamental to human social interaction. Many different types of important information are visible in faces and the processes and mechanisms involved in extracting this information are complex and can be highly specialized. The importance of faces has long been recognized by a wide range of scientists. Importantly, the range of perspectives and techniques that this breadth has brought to face perception research has, in recent years, led to many important advances in our understanding of face processing. The articles in this issue on face perception each review a particular arena of interest in face perception, variously focusing on (i) the social aspects of face perception (attraction, recognition and emotion), (ii) the neural mechanisms underlying face perception (using brain scanning, patient data, direct stimulation of the brain, visual adaptation and single-cell recording), and (iii) comparative aspects of face perception (comparing adult human abilities with those of chimpanzees and children). Here, we introduce the central themes of the issue and present an overview of the articles.

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From single cells to social perception

Cited by 40 publications

References 114 publications

Contrasting Specializations for Facial Motion within the Macaque Face-Processing System

Contrasting Specializations for Facial Motion within the Macaque Face-Processing System

Fixations Gate Species-Specific Responses to Free Viewing of Faces in the Human and Macaque Amygdala

The many faces of research on face perception

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