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How does the brain process upright and inverted faces?

Bruno Rossion1, Isabel Gauthier

  • 1Brown University, USA.

Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Reviews
|August 25, 2007
PubMed
Summary
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The face inversion effect shows that upside-down faces are harder to recognize because our brain struggles to process their relational information. This effect impacts face-selective brain regions and potentials, confirming its perceptual basis.

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Visual Perception

Background:

  • The face inversion effect (FIE) demonstrates impaired recognition of inverted faces compared to other objects.
  • Behavioral studies indicate FIE occurs during perceptual encoding, linked to reduced relational information extraction.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the neural mechanisms underlying the face inversion effect.
  • To examine the impact of face inversion on face-selective brain regions and event-related potentials.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and scalp event-related potentials (ERPs).
  • Analyzed brain activity in face-selective regions like the fusiform face area (FFA).
  • Measured the N170 component, an occipito-temporal potential.

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Main Results:

  • Face inversion significantly decreased responses in face-selective brain regions (e.g., FFA).
  • Increased activity was observed in non-face-selective areas for inverted faces.
  • Face inversion led to a delayed and sometimes larger N170 component.

Conclusions:

  • Neural modulations observed in fMRI and ERPs align with the perceptual locus of the FIE.
  • Findings support the role of the fusiform face area (FFA) and N170 in individual face discrimination.