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The Functional Neuroanatomy of Human Face Perception
Kalanit Grill-Spector1,2, Kevin S Weiner1, Kendrick Kay3
1Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305;
Annual Review of Vision Science
|July 19, 2017
Summary
Understanding the brain
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Neuroimaging
Background:
- Face perception is crucial for social interaction.
- The ventral visual stream network is responsible for face processing.
- Understanding the neural basis of face perception is an active area of research.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review recent neuroimaging findings on the ventral face network.
- To explore the link between anatomical features and functional characteristics of this network.
- To discuss the implications for computational models of face perception.
Main Methods:
- Review of neuroimaging studies.
- Analysis of macro- and microscopic anatomical features.
- Examination of white matter connections and neural computations.
Main Results:
- The ventral face network comprises specific anatomical features and white matter connections.
- Neural tissue properties are closely related to functional characteristics.
- Population receptive fields perform basic computations within face-selective regions.
Conclusions:
- Anatomical properties of the ventral face network are intrinsically linked to its function.
- Further investigation into the neural architecture can inform computational models.
- Understanding the neural computations is key to explaining efficient face perception.
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