Revisiting the effective connectivity within the distributed cortical network for face perception

The classical core system of face perception consists of the occipital face area (OFA), fusiform face area (FFA), and posterior superior temporal sulcus (STS). The functional interaction within this network, more specifically the effective connectivity, was first described by Fairhall and Ishai (2007) using functional magnetic resonance imaging and dynamic causal modeling. They proposed that the core system is hierarchically organized; information is processed in a parallel and predominantly feed-forward fashion from the OFA to downstream regions such as the FFA and STS, with no lateral connectivity, i.e., no connectivity between the two downstream regions (FFA and STS). Over a decade later, we conducted a conceptual replication of their model using four different functional magnetic resonance imaging data sets. The effective connectivity within the core system was assessed with contemporary versions of dynamic causal modeling. The resulting model of the core system of face perception was densely interconnected. Using hierarchical linear modeling, we identified several significant forward, backward, and lateral connections in the core system of face perception across the data sets. Face perception increased the forward connectivity from the OFA to the FFA and OFA to the STS and increased the inhibitory backward connectivity from the FFA to the OFA, as well as the lateral connectivity between the FFA and STS. Emotion perception increased forward connectivity between the OFA and STS and decreased the lateral connectivity between the FFA and STS. Face familiarity did not significantly alter these connections. Our results revise the 2007 model of the core system of face perception. We discuss the potential meaning of the resulting model parameters and propose that our revised model is a suitable working model for further studies assessing the functional interaction within the core system of face perception. Our work further emphasizes the general importance of conceptual replications.