The Fusiform Face Area: A Module in Human Extrastriate Cortex Specialized for Face Perception

Kanwisher, Nancy; McDermott, Josh H.; Chun, Marvin M.

doi:10.1523/jneurosci.17-11-04302.1997

Cited by 6,926 publications

(5,569 citation statements)

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“…33,41 The amygdala projects back to all levels of the ventral visual stream, 42 and it influences activity in this brain region during face perception, 43 suggesting that progesterone decreases the back projections of the amygdala to the fusiform gyrus. However, because functional connectivity is a correlational method, this result may also reflect the influence of the fusiform gyrus on the amygdala by feed-forward projections.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Statistical tests were family-wise error (FWE) rate corrected for multiple comparisons across the whole brain or the region-ofinterest (ROI), using a small volume correction, 31 unless stated otherwise. The bilateral amygdala ROI was anatomically defined using the WFU Pickatlas, 32 and the bilateral face responsive regions in the fusiform gyri were defined as spheres with 14 mm radius around previously reported Talairach coordinates 33 that were transformed into MNI-space (http:// imaging.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk/imaging/MniTalairach). Furthermore, mean amygdala activity in both drug conditions was extracted from the bilateral amygdala ROI for additional correlation analyses.…”

Section: Data Acquisitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Progesterone selectively increases amygdala reactivity in women

et al. 2007

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The acute neural effects of progesterone are mediated by its neuroactive metabolites allopregnanolone and pregnanolone. These neurosteroids potentiate the inhibitory actions of c-aminobutyric acid (GABA). Progesterone is known to produce anxiolytic effects in animals, but recent animal studies suggest that pregnanolone increases anxiety after a period of low allopregnanolone concentration. This effect is potentially mediated by the amygdala and related to the negative mood symptoms in humans that are observed during increased allopregnanolone levels. Therefore, we investigated with functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) whether a single progesterone administration to healthy young women in their follicular phase modulates the amygdala response to salient, biologically relevant stimuli. The progesterone administration increased the plasma concentrations of progesterone and allopregnanolone to levels that are reached during the luteal phase and early pregnancy. The imaging results show that progesterone selectively increased amygdala reactivity. Furthermore, functional connectivity analyses indicate that progesterone modulated functional coupling of the amygdala with distant brain regions. These results reveal a neural mechanism by which progesterone may mediate adverse effects on anxiety and mood.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Data Acquisitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Progesterone selectively increases amygdala reactivity in women

et al. 2007

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“…This hypothesis was based both on neuroimaging studies of reading and on anatomo-clinical correlations in patients with pure alexia, an acquired deficit of reading that follows left occipitotemporal lesions (McCandliss et al, 2003). The VWFA hypothesis was framed in the broader context of recent studies of functional specialization within the human ventral visual stream, in which have been identified several areas specialized for other classes of visual stimuli such as faces, places, or body parts (Downing et al, 2001;Hasson et al, 2003;Haxby et al, 2001;Kanwisher et al, 1997).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Specialization within the ventral stream: the case for the visual word form area

2004

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Is there specialization for visual word recognition within the visual ventral stream of literate human adults? We review the evidence for a specialized ''visual word form area'' and critically examine some of the arguments recently placed against this hypothesis. Three distinct forms of specialization must be distinguished: functional specialization, reproducible localization, and regional selectivity. Examination of the literature with this theoretical division in mind indicates that reading activates a precise subpart of the left ventral occipitotemporal sulcus, and that patients with pure alexia consistently exhibit lesions of this region (reproducible localization). Second, this region implements processes adequate for reading in a specific script, such as invariance across upper-and lower-case letters, and its lesion results in the selective loss of reading-specific processes (functional specialization). Third, the issue of regional selectivity, namely, the existence of putative cortical patches dedicated to letter and word recognition, cannot be resolved by positron emission tomography or lesion data, but requires high-resolution neuroimaging techniques. The available evidence from single-subject fMRI and intracranial recordings suggests that some cortical sites respond preferentially to letter strings than to other categories of visual stimuli such as faces or objects, though the preference is often relative rather than absolute. We conclude that learning to read results in the progressive development of an inferotemporal region increasingly responsive to visual words, which is aptly named the visual word form area (VWFA).

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“…Adult imagery studies suggest that certain kinds are segregated in their cortical representation. Dedicated cerebral tissue exists to process properties of at least three broad classes of objects: members of our species, animals, and other things (e.g., Kanwisher, McDermott, & Chun, 1997;Kanwisher, Stanley, & Harris, 1999;Kanwisher, Tong, & Nakayama, 1998;Martin, Wiggs, Ungerleider, & Haxby, 1996;Perani et al, 1995).…”

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confidence: 99%