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Stereotypes bias face perception via orbitofrontal-fusiform cortical interaction.

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  • 1Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK.

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Stereotypes bias face perception by influencing visual cortex activity. This effect requires feedback from the medial orbitofrontal cortex, which is disrupted by backward masking, preventing biased face representations.

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Cognitive Science
  • Social Psychology

Background:

  • Social-conceptual associations, like stereotypes, impact face visual representation and neural activity in the ventral temporal cortex (VTC).
  • Current models propose medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC) feedback is crucial for this social-conceptual influence during perception.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the role of medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC) feedback in mediating stereotype-driven biases in face perception.
  • To determine if disrupting functional connectivity affects the influence of stereotypes on neural representations of faces.

Main Methods:

  • Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to observe brain activity while participants viewed masked and unmasked faces.
  • Multi-voxel pattern analysis (MVPA) examined representations in the VTC, fusiform gyrus (FG), and mOFC.
  • Functional connectivity analyses assessed the link between mOFC and FG activity.

Main Results:

  • Stereotypical biases were present in VTC and FG representations for unmasked faces but were abolished for masked faces.
  • Masking disrupted mOFC-FG functional connectivity, which correlated with reduced stereotypical influence in the FG.
  • The VTC remained capable of processing masked faces and discerning categorical distinctions.

Conclusions:

  • Stereotype-driven biasing of face representations in the VTC and FG is not solely due to intrinsic processing.
  • Top-down feedback from the mOFC plays a significant role in modulating face representations based on social-conceptual associations.
  • Disrupting mOFC feedback via backward masking reduces the impact of stereotypes on face perception.