Familiarity Processing through Faces and Names: Insights from Multivoxel Pattern Analysis.

The way our brain processes personal familiarity is still debatable. We used searchlight multivoxel pattern analysis (MVPA) to identify areas where local fMRI patterns could contribute to familiarity detection for both faces and name categories. Significantly, we identified cortical areas in frontal, temporal, cingulate, and insular areas, where it is possible to accurately cross-classify familiar stimuli from one category using a classifier trained with the stimulus from the other (i.e., abstract familiarity) based on local fMRI patterns. We also discovered several areas in the fusiform gyrus, frontal, and temporal regions-primarily lateralized to the right hemisphere-supporting the classification of familiar faces but failing to do so for names. Also, responses to familiar names (compared to unfamiliar names) consistently showed less activation strength than responses to familiar faces (compared to unfamiliar faces). The results evinced a set of abstract familiarity areas (independent of the stimulus type) and regions specifically related only to face familiarity, contributing to recognizing familiar individuals.

Objects seen as scenes: Neural circuitry for attending whole or parts.

Depending on our goals, we pay attention to the global shape of an object or to the local shape of its parts, since it's difficult to do both at once. This typically effortless process can be impaired in disease. However, it is not clear which cortical regions carry the information needed to constrain shape processing to a chosen global/local level. Here, novel stimuli were used to dissociate functional MRI responses to global and local shapes. This allowed identification of cortical regions containing information about level (independent from shape). Crucially, these regions overlapped part of the cortical network implicated in scene processing. As expected, shape information (independent of level) was mainly located in category-selective areas specialized for object- and face-processing. Regions with the same informational profile were strongly linked (as measured by functional connectivity), but were weak when the profiles diverged. Specifically, in the ventral-temporal-cortex (VTC) regions favoring level and shape were consistently separated by the mid-fusiform sulcus (MFS). These regions also had limited crosstalk despite their spatial proximity, thus defining two functional pathways within VTC. We hypothesize that object hierarchical level is processed by neural circuitry that also analyses spatial layout in scenes, contributing to the control of the spatial-scale used for shape recognition. Use of level information tolerant to shape changes could guide whole/part attentional selection but facilitate illusory shape/level conjunctions under impoverished vision.

Anatomical connections underlying personally-familiar face processing.

Familiar face processing involves face specific regions (the core face system) as well as other non-specific areas related to processing of person-related information (the extended face system). The connections between core and extended face system areas must be critical for face recognition. Some studies have explored the connectivity pattern of unfamiliar face responding area, but none have explored those areas related to face familiarity processing in the extended system. To study these connections, diffusion weighted imaging with probabilistic tractography was used to estimate the white-matter pathways between core and extended system regions, which were defined from functional magnetic resonance imaging responses to personally-familiar faces. Strong white matter connections were found between occipitotemporal face areas (OFA/FFA) with superior temporal sulcus and insula suggesting the possible existence of direct anatomical connections from face-specific areas to frontal nodes that could underlay the processing of emotional information associated to familiar faces.

The affective processing of loved familiar faces and names: Integrating fMRI and heart rate.

The neuroscientific study of love has been boosted by an extended corpus of research on face-identity recognition. However, few studies have compared the emotional mechanisms activated by loved faces and names and none have simultaneously examined fMRI and autonomic measures. The present study combined fMRI with the heart rate response when 21 participants (10 males) passively viewed the face or the written name of 4 loved people and 4 unknown people. The results showed accelerative patterns in heart rate, together with brain activations, which were significantly higher for loved people than for unknown people. Significant correlations were found between heart rate and brain activation in frontal areas, for faces, and in temporal areas, for names. The results are discussed in the context of previous studies using the same passive viewing procedure, highlighting the relevance of integrating peripheral and central measures in the scientific study of positive emotion and love.

ERP Source Analysis Guided by fMRI During Familiar Face Processing.

Event related potentials (ERPs) provide precise temporal information about cognitive processing, but with poor spatial resolution, while functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) reliably identifies brain areas involved, but with poor temporal resolution. Here we use fMRI to guide source localization of the ERPs at different times for studying the temporal dynamics of the neural system for recognizing familiar faces. fMRI activation areas were defined in a previous experiment applying the same paradigm used for ERPs. The Bayesian model averaging (BMA) method was used to estimate the generators of the ERPs to unfamiliar, visually familiar, and personally-familiar faces constraining the model by fMRI activation results. For this, higher prior probabilities in the solution space were assigned to the fMRI-defined regions, which included face-selective areas and other areas related to "person knowledge" retrieval. Source analysis was carried out in three-time windows: early (150-210 ms), middle (300-380 ms) and late (460-580 ms). The early and middle responses were generated in fMRI-defined areas for all face categories, while these areas do not contribute to the late response. Different areas contributed to the generation of the early and middle ERPs elicited by unfamiliar faces: fusiform (Fus), inferior occipital, superior temporal sulcus and the posterior cingulate (PC) cortices. For familiar faces, the contributing areas were Fus, PC and anterior temporal areas for visually familiar faces, with the addition of the medial orbitofrontal areas and other frontal structures for personally-significant faces. For both unfamiliar and familiar faces, more extended and reliable involvement of contributing areas were obtained for the middle compare with early time window. Our fMRI guide ERP source analysis suggested the recruitment of person-knowledge processing areas as early as 150-210 ms after stimulus onset during recognition of personally-familiar faces. We concluded that fMRI-constrained BMA source analysis provide information regarding the temporal-dynamics in the neural system for cognitive processsing.