Neural correlates of personally familiar faces: Parents, partner and own faces

Abstract

Investigations of the neural correlates of face recognition have typically used old/new paradigms where subjects learn to recognize new faces or identify famous faces. Familiar faces, however, include one's own face, partner's and parents' faces. Using event-related fMRI, we examined the neural correlates of these personally familiar faces. Ten participants were presented with photographs of own, partner, parents, famous and unfamiliar faces and responded to a distinct target. Whole brain, two regions of interest (fusiform gyrus and cingulate gyrus), and multiple linear regression analyses were conducted. Compared with baseline, all familiar faces activated the fusiform gyrus; own faces also activated occipital regions and the precuneus; partner faces activated similar areas, but in addition, the parahippocampal gyrus, middle superior temporal gyri and middle frontal gyrus. Compared with unfamiliar faces, only personally familiar faces activated the cingulate gyrus and the extent of activation varied with face category. Partner faces also activated the insula, amygdala and thalamus. Regions of interest analyses and laterality indices showed anatomical distinctions of processing the personally familiar faces within the fusiform and cingulate gyri. Famous faces were right lateralized whereas personally familiar faces, particularly partner and own faces, elicited bilateral activations. Regression analyses show experiential predictors modulated with neural activity related to own and partner faces. Thus, personally familiar faces activated the core visual areas and extended frontal regions, related to semantic and person knowledge and the extent and areas of activation varied with face type.

Neural mechanisms tracking popularity in real-world social networks

“…These photographs were cropped and converted to grayscale images with equal luminance. In addition, a "ghost face" stimulus image representing the superimposition of all group members' faces was prepared for each group following methods used in prior face perception research (29). The face-viewing task implemented a rapid event-related design that included 10 repetitions of each stimulus face presented in pseudorandomized order.…”

“…Faces were presented for 1,000 ms and interstimulus intervals (ISIs) consisting of white fixation cross on black background were jittered between 1,500 ms and 11,500 ms (mean duration of ISI = 3,500 ms). Perceivers viewed faces of targets while performing a simple cover task (29) to maintain their alertness throughout. Specifically, participants were instructed to press a button with their pointer (second) finger each time a group member's face was presented and a different button with their ring (fourth) finger each time a "ghost face" was presented (∼9% of total presentations).…”

Sustained effects of adaptation on the perception of familiar faces.

“…This suggests that famous faces might be represented as icons or celebrity snapshots rather than as faces per se. Taylor et al (2009) showed in a brain imaging study that brain activation induced by personally familiar faces was more widespread and bilaterally distributed, while famous faces elicited activity lateralized to the right hemisphere in the same areas as unfamiliar faces. between the specific low-level stimulus properties and featureselective neurons in the corresponding cortical areas, for example, orientation-specific neurons in visual area V1 as a basis for the tilt aftereffect.…”

The neural correlates of visual self-recognition

“…Two studies comparing self-face processing to a familiar face processing found activity in the medial frontal gyrus, one on the right (Platek, Loughead, Gur, Busch, Ruparel, Phend et al, 2006) and one on the left (Platek & Kemp, 2009). With unfamiliar control faces, two studies reported activity in the right (Platek & Kemp, 2009;Sugiura et al, 2000) and one bilateral activity (Taylor, Arsalidou, Bayless, Morris, Evans, & Barbeau, 2009) in the medial frontal gyrus. In a study comparing recognition of the self to recognition of personally familiar faces related (i.e.…”