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Lateralization for dynamic facial expressions in human superior temporal sulcus
François-Laurent De Winter1, Qi Zhu2, Jan Van den Stock1
1Research Group Psychiatry, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven, Herestraat 49, 3000 Leuven, Belgium; Old Age Psychiatry Department, University Hospitals Leuven, Herestraat 49, 3000 Leuven, Belgium.
Neuroimage
|December 3, 2014
Summary
Human brain studies reveal right hemisphere dominance for static faces. Dynamic facial expression processing shows right-sided lateralization in the human posterior superior temporal sulcus, unlike in monkeys, suggesting a link to language specialization.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Comparative Psychology
- Primatology
Background:
- Human face processing typically shows right-hemisphere dominance, primarily studied using static stimuli and focusing on the fusiform face area (FFA).
- Lateralization patterns for dynamic facial expressions and their evolutionary basis across primates remain less understood.
- The role of left-hemisphere language specialization in human face processing lateralization is debated.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate lateralization for dynamic facial expressions in both humans and macaques.
- To determine if right-hemisphere dominance in face processing is conserved across primate species or influenced by human-specific language functions.
- To explore the relationship between dynamic face processing lateralization and language specialization in the human brain.
Main Methods:
- Event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was conducted on 3 macaques and 20 right-handed humans.
- Participants viewed dynamic human and macaque facial expressions (chewing, fear) and scrambled stimuli.
- Lateralization was assessed using a weighted lateralization index (LIwm) in predefined face-responsive and face-selective regions. A separate fMRI experiment in 10 humans examined speech-related expressions.
Main Results:
- Consistent right-sided lateralization for dynamic faces versus scrambled stimuli was observed in the human posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS), but not in FFA or ventral temporal cortex.
- No consistent lateralization pattern for dynamic facial expressions was found in monkeys.
- Human pSTS showed left-sided lateralization for speech-related expressions compared to chewing and emotional expressions.
Conclusions:
- Dynamic face processing exhibits lateralization in the human pSTS, but not in the visual cortex of monkeys.
- These findings suggest that lateralization for dynamic face processing in humans may be influenced by left-hemisphere language specialization.
- The observed differences imply that specialized face processing lateralization might be a more recent evolutionary development in humans, potentially linked to language evolution.
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