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Conscious and Non-conscious Representations of Emotional Faces in Asperger's Syndrome
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Individual differences in neural activity during a facial expression vs. identity working memory task.

Maital Neta1, Paul J Whalen

  • 1Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA. maital.neta@dartmouth.edu

Neuroimage
|February 26, 2011
PubMed
Summary

The brain uses distinct neural pathways involving the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) for working memory (WM) of facial expressions and identities. Greater DLPFC activity correlated with better performance in both tasks.

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Social Cognition

Background:

  • Facial expressions and identity are crucial for social interaction.
  • Understanding the neural basis of processing these facial cues is important.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate overlapping and unique brain circuitry for working memory of facial expressions versus identities.
  • To differentiate neural mechanisms underlying facial expression and identity working memory.

Main Methods:

  • Participants completed a working memory (WM) n-back task, monitoring either facial expression (EMO) or identity (ID).
  • Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to measure brain activity.
  • Correlations between brain activity and task performance were analyzed.

Main Results:

  • Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) showed increased activity in both EMO and ID tasks, confirming its role in general WM.
  • Increased DLPFC activity correlated with amygdala activity during the EMO task.
  • Increased DLPFC activity correlated with lateral fusiform gyrus activity during the ID task.
  • Activity in these regions significantly correlated with task performance.

Conclusions:

  • Two distinct neural circuitries support working memory for faces and expressions.
  • Both circuitries involve the DLPFC, suggesting its central role in facial information WM.
  • The amygdala is involved in expression WM, while the lateral fusiform gyrus is involved in identity WM.