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Updated: May 20, 2026
09:25
Detecting Pre-Stimulus Source-Level Effects on Object Perception with Magnetoencephalography
Published on: July 26, 2019
Multivoxel patterns in face-sensitive temporal regions reveal an encoding schema based on detecting life in a face
Christine E Looser1, Jyothi S Guntupalli, Thalia Wheatley
1Hanover, NH 03755. thalia.p.wheatley@dartmouth.edu.
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
|July 17, 2012
Summary
Researchers investigated how the brain processes faces, distinguishing between facial form and animacy. Findings show early brain regions focus on form, while later regions prioritize detecting if a face is alive, crucial for social cognition.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Science
- Social Neuroscience
Background:
- The 'core face network' prioritizes face processing in three brain regions.
- It remains unclear if these regions prioritize global facial form or facial animacy.
Purpose of the Study:
- To differentiate form-based and animacy-based encoding of faces within the core face network.
- To understand how the brain distinguishes between animate and inanimate faces.
Main Methods:
- Used multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) of BOLD responses.
- Compared brain activity for animate/inanimate faces with human and dog forms (humans, mannequins, real dogs, toy dogs).
Main Results:
- Inferior occipital gyrus responses are organized by global facial form (human vs. dog) only.
- Lateral fusiform gyri (latFG) and right superior temporal sulcus prioritize animacy in addition to form.
- Human faces evoked maximally distinct patterns in latFG and extended face perception areas.
Conclusions:
- Facial form is processed initially, followed by animacy detection in later stages.
- Animacy detection is critical for allocating social cognitive resources.
- The brain distinguishes between real and artificial faces, prioritizing animate entities.
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