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Related Concept Videos

Association Areas of the Cortex01:21

Association Areas of the Cortex

Association areas are regions of the cerebral cortex that do not have a specific sensory or motor function. Instead, they integrate and interpret information from various sources to enable higher cognitive processes such as memory, learning, and decision-making. Some key association areas include the following:
Prefrontal Association Area: This area is located in the frontal lobe and is involved in planning, decision-making, and moderating social behavior. It connects with primary motor areas,...
Somatosensation01:33

Somatosensation

The somatosensory system relays sensory information from the skin, mucous membranes, limbs, and joints. Somatosensation is more familiarly known as the sense of touch. A typical somatosensory pathway includes three types of long neurons: primary, secondary, and tertiary. Primary neurons have cell bodies located near the spinal cord in groups of neurons called dorsal root ganglia. The sensory neurons of ganglia innervate designated areas of skin called dermatomes.
Prosopagnosia01:24

Prosopagnosia

Prosopagnosia, also known as face blindness, is the inability to recognize faces. In severe cases, individuals with prosopagnosia may not recognize close family members, including parents and spouses, by their faces. For instance, someone with prosopagnosia might walk past their child in a crowd, only realizing their mistake upon noticing their child's distinctive backpack or favorite jacket. Prosopagnosia specifically impairs facial recognition, while the recognition of other objects or...
Vision01:24

Vision

Vision is the result of light being detected and transduced into neural signals by the retina of the eye. This information is then further analyzed and interpreted by the brain. First, light enters the front of the eye and is focused by the cornea and lens onto the retina—a thin sheet of neural tissue lining the back of the eye. Because of refraction through the convex lens of the eye, images are projected onto the retina upside-down and reversed.
Motor and Sensory Areas of the Cortex01:14

Motor and Sensory Areas of the Cortex

The cerebral cortex, the brain's outermost layer, is pivotal in processing complex cognitive tasks, emotions, and various sensory inputs and executing voluntary motor activities. This intricate structure is divided into three primary functional areas: the motor areas, sensory areas, and association areas.
Motor Areas
The motor areas located in the frontal lobe are central to controlling voluntary movements. This region is further subdivided into the primary motor cortex and the premotor cortex.
Parallel Processing01:20

Parallel Processing

The brain processes sensory information rapidly due to parallel processing, which involves sending data across multiple neural pathways at the same time. This method allows the brain to manage various sensory qualities, such as shapes, colors, movements, and locations, all concurrently. For instance, when observing a forest landscape, the brain simultaneously processes the movement of leaves, the shapes of trees, the depth between them, and the various shades of green. This enables a quick and...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 8, 2026

Correlating Behavioral Responses to fMRI Signals from Human Prefrontal Cortex: Examining Cognitive Processes Using Task Analysis
10:33

Correlating Behavioral Responses to fMRI Signals from Human Prefrontal Cortex: Examining Cognitive Processes Using Task Analysis

Published on: June 20, 2012

Face-specific processing in the human fusiform gyrus.

G McCarthy1, A Puce, J C Gore

  • 1VA Medical Center, West Haven, CT and Yale University School of Medicine.

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
|August 23, 2013
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) reveals that while both faces and flowers activate the visual cortex, a specific region in the right fusiform gyrus is uniquely responsive to faces.

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Perceptual and Category Processing of the Uncanny Valley Hypothesis' Dimension of Human Likeness: Some Methodological Issues
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Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: May 8, 2026

Correlating Behavioral Responses to fMRI Signals from Human Prefrontal Cortex: Examining Cognitive Processes Using Task Analysis
10:33

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Published on: June 20, 2012

Translational Brain Mapping at the University of Rochester Medical Center: Preserving the Mind Through Personalized Brain Mapping
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Perceptual and Category Processing of the Uncanny Valley Hypothesis' Dimension of Human Likeness: Some Methodological Issues
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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Visual Perception

Background:

  • Face perception is often considered a specialized cognitive function.
  • Research aims to identify specific brain regions involved in face processing.
  • The fusiform gyrus is a key area implicated in visual object recognition.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the neural correlates of face-specific cortical activation.
  • To determine if activation patterns differ based on the visual context of stimuli.
  • To explore the specificity of visual cortex regions for faces versus other familiar objects.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure brain activity.
  • Presented participants with faces and flowers in varying contexts (objects vs. nonobjects).
  • Analyzed activation patterns in the fusiform gyrus and other visual areas.

Main Results:

  • Faces and flowers activated bilateral inferior extrastriate cortex when presented with nonobjects.
  • Faces presented among objects showed focal activation in the right fusiform gyrus.
  • Flowers presented among objects did not elicit significant fusiform activation.

Conclusions:

  • The fusiform gyrus shows overlapping activation for faces and flowers.
  • A distinct region, primarily in the right lateral fusiform gyrus, is specifically activated by faces.
  • Visual context significantly modulates the neural representation of familiar objects.