Neural Trade-Offs between Recognizing and Categorizing Own- and Other-Race Faces

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Psychology
• Social Neuroscience

Background:

• Behavioral studies indicate a trade-off between recognizing and categorizing faces based on race.
• This trade-off is a key indicator of face processing expertise.
• Neural underpinnings of this behavioral phenomenon remain largely unexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the neural mechanisms underlying the trade-off between face recognition and race categorization.
• To examine how the brain processes own- and other-race faces differently during these tasks.

Main Methods:

• Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was employed to monitor brain activity.
• Participants concurrently performed face recognition and race categorization tasks for both own- and other-race faces.

Main Results:

• For other-race faces, the fusiform face area (FFA) and occipital face area (OFA) showed greater activation for recognition than categorization.
• Own-race faces elicited similar responses in FFA and OFA for both tasks.
• The right superior temporal sulcus (STS) exhibited opposing response patterns compared to FFA and OFA.
• Functional connectivity analyses revealed task- and race-dependent modulations between FFA/OFA and STS.

Conclusions:

• Neural substrates for face recognition and categorization are shared, but their activation and connectivity are modulated by face race and task demands.
• Differential processing expertise with own- and other-race faces underlies these observed neural trade-offs within the core face processing network.